A survey of 600 married couples in the Irish Republic in 1975 found marked pronatalist attitudes and an overall mean family size of 3·1 children, ranging from 1·1 children for couples with marriage duration of less than 5 years to 5·1 children for couples married for 15 years or longer. Husbands and wives had the same viewson the ideal size for the average family—5·6 children; this is considerably higher than other European survey findings. Overall, 66% of wives said that they had used some formof contraception and this correlates highly with social class, age of wife, educational level and residence. Use of the pill correlates with residence and age but not with social class or education. One-third of the sample would like more information on the subject of family planning. Although very few gave religious attitudes as a reason for not using birth control in general, 13% stated that the pill was immoral.

Data from New South Wales are analysed to show how the interval between confinements depends on the parity of the mother. When an average interval is calculated it is a weighted average for mothers of varying parity. The weights depend in part on the parity progression ratios and as changes in the parity progression ratios alter the composition of the population by parity, this affects the weightings used and thus affects the average interval obtained.

For any interval, age of mother can be calculated at the birth of either child. When age of mother is calculated at the birth of the second child, it is found that the interval is shorter for younger mothers than older mothers. However, when age of mother is calculated at the birth of the first child, there is no significant variation in the interval with age of mother.

Reproductive performance of the human female is simulated by Monte Carlo methods. The results clearly suggest the operation of natural selection on the length of the female menstrual cycle, brought about by differential fertility. It is argued that the selection pressure towards a shorter cycle, with a selective advantage of approximately 1% per day of shortening, is balanced by internal physiological determinants preventing excessive shortening, so the result is a situation of stabilizing natural selection.

Sir David Owen, who should have given this lecture, died very suddenly and unexpectedly at the end of June.

U Thant said in a tribute: ‘David Owen was literally the first member of the United Nations Secretariat. He joined the United Nations directly from the San Francisco Conference in 1945…. As the first and only Executive Chairman of the Technical Assistance Board he was key organizer of what has now become the United Nations Development Programme…. When he left the United Nations a year ago to assume his new post as Secretary General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation he was continuing the work to which he had devoted his life, the application of human ingenuity and technological progress to problems of peoples of the world. It is a tragedy, and a loss to all mankind, that his life and his new career have been so abruptly cut short.’

The effect of migration on the maximum opportunity for selection is analysed using koseki data, the Japanese family registration records, of a village population in a small island. When selection intensity is divided into two components, migration greatly influences the variance of the mortality component of the original formula. The difference in selection intensity, with and without allowance for migration, is conspicuous in the recent cohort; the intensity, with a migration component, shows a consistent increase, whereas it declined in the original formula. The implications of this are discussed in the context of the genetic structure of a population of small size, changing rapidly over time.

The part played by radio and television coverage of sport in developing public appreciation of sports is covered, and consideration is given to the responsibilities involved in dealing with sports in which violence occurs. The duties of the television producer in relation to the players, the viewers and the sponsors of sport are discussed.

Professor Morton was Johnston Professor of Biochemistry in the University of Liverpool, 1994–66. He served on the Council of the Royal Society, 1959–61, and on the Council of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, 1955–61. He was the first Chairman of the British National Committee for Chemical Education and of the Food Additives and Contaminants Committee. He has also served on many committees dealing with vitamins, bread and flour, nutrition and biological research generally. In recent years he has been active on committees of the Natural Environment Research Council.

This lecture was given to a varied audience of staff and students at the University College of Aberystwyth on 25th February 1970. The Executive Editor is pleased to be able to publish this interesting and thought-provoking discourse on a problem of ever-growing importance.

Out of 197 Wessex women undergoing a legal abortion at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinic at Brighton, 31 (15·7%) had already been refused a termination of pregnancy by at least one National Health Service doctor in Wessex. Almost all of these pregnancies were terminated for reasons covered by the social clause of the 1967 Abortion Act.

The principal reasons given for refusal of termination were that the women had insufficient grounds for termination under the Abortion Act, or that they were too late. Some were given misleading information. Refusal of an operation may have led to one woman having a second trimester rather a first trimester procedure when she went to BPAS. Some of these patients reported medical consultations which they had found to be upsetting or hurtful. It is suggested that the interests both of women seeking abortion and of doctors opposed to abortion would be best served if the Health Authorities were to provide alternative referral pathways to special abortion facilities.

The measurement of food intake has long been used to describe ‘adaptation’ to low energy intakes in certain tropical peoples. However, the methods available to quantify food intake are unlikely to reflect accurately real energy intakes in free living peoples. Alternatively, estimating energy expenditure shows some promise—particularly the measurement of basal metabolic rate (BMR). The BMR may be measured effectively in males, but females show wide intra-individual variation in BMR during their menstrual cycle, which makes BMR measurements more difficult to interpret in the context of adaptation. The use of double-labelled water may be the only method suitable to quantify and define ‘adaptation’ to low intakes in women.

This is a retrospective study of 1754 patients seen at the Brook Pregnancy Advice Service (Avon) in the 3½ years January 1971 to June 1974; 1653 patients were referred for termination of pregnancy. The ages of the patients ranged from 13 to 44 years; the age peak was 19 years. Most patients attended between the 7th and 10th weeks of pregnancy; the peak was at 8 weeks. The majority of patients from outside the clinical area were referred for abortion privately. Patients from within the clinical area were referred to the NHS slightly more often than privately. There is a delay of 2–4 weeks for an NHS gynaecological appointment and a further 1–4 weeks before termination. Private patients are seen within 7 days and their abortions are performed within a few days. Patients from within the clinical area are more likely to return to the clinic for follow-up. There is a considerable fall-off in the continuation of follow-up for all patients returning to the clinic.

This paper is based on the author's experiences during first, participation in an anthropological study of migrants, particularly Samoan migrants, in New Zealand over a period of 10 years in the late 1960s–mid- 1970s (Pitt & MacPherson, 1975) and secondly, participation over the last 3 years in a World Health Organization programme concerned with promoting the health and welfare of children, many of whom were migrants living in poverty.

The pseudo-genetic analysis of given names shows that, in the Scilly Isles, coefficients of relationship of first names are similar on St Mary's, the Outer Isles, and in the total sample of 5666 individuals married there in two and a half centuries. Comparable coefficients of relationship of a sample of 1658 given names in marriages in England and Wales in 1975 are considerably smaller, but similar within and between districts. The coefficients of relationship of given names on the Scilly Isles decreased during the 19th and especially the 20th centuries in parallel with decreases in random relationship from surnames. The genetic versus cultural–linguistic factors cannot be distinguished in the temporal variation in names, but the geographic differentiation virtually always reported in surnames is not present in these examples of given names and the geographic pattern in the surnames thus seems to result from the hereditary aspect of surnames. This result supports the validity of use of surnames in models of human genetic geography.

The interval between successive pregnancies (birth interval) is one of the main indexes used to evaluate the health of a mother and her child. This study evaluated birth intervals in Iran using data from the Iranian Multiple Indicators Demographic and Health Survey (IrMIDHS) conducted in 2010–2011. A total of 20,093 married Iranian women aged 15–54 years from the whole country constituted the study sample. Based on the nature of sampling and the unobserved population heterogeneity for birth intervals in each city and province, a multilevel survival frailty model was applied. Data were analysed for women’s first three birth intervals. The median first and second birth intervals were 30.3 and 39.7 months respectively. Higher education, Caesarean delivery, contraceptive use and exposure to public mass media were found to decrease the hazard rate ratio (HRR) of giving birth. Meanwhile, higher monthly income increased the hazard of giving birth. The results suggest that public mass media can play an effective role in encouraging women to have the recommended birth interval. Furthermore, increasing family income could encourage Iranian couples to decrease the time to their next birth.

Neonatal mortality is one of the leading causes of under-five mortality globally, with the majority of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In Ghana, there is a belief in an array of newborn conditions, called Asram, that are thought to have a spiritual, rather than physical, cause. These conditions are predominantly managed by traditional healers as they are considered unable to be treated by allopathic medical providers. Through a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews of medical providers in Kumasi, Ghana, conducted in July–August 2018, this study sought to elucidate perspectives of allopathic medical providers about Asram, including the perceived implications of traditional newborn care patterns on newborn health and higher-level neonatal care. Twenty health care providers participated and represented a tertiary care hospital and a district hospital. Medical providers were universally aware of Asram but varied on the latitude they gave this belief system within the arena of newborn care. Some providers rationalized the existence of Asram in the backdrop of high neonatal mortality rates and long-standing belief systems. Others highlighted their frustration with Asram, citing delays in care and complications due to traditional medical treatments. Providers utilized varying approaches to bridge culture gaps with families in their care and emphasized the importance of open communication with the shared goal of improved newborn health and survival. This study describes the importance of providers being aware of socio-cultural constructs within which pregnant women operate and suggests a focus on the shared goal of timely and effective newborn care in Ghana.

The theory of selection of quantitative traits is widely used in evolutionary biology, agriculture and other related fields. The fundamental model known as the breeder’s equation is simple, robust over short time scales, and it is often possible to estimate plausible parameters. In this paper it is suggested that the results of this model provide useful yardsticks for the description of social traits and the evaluation of transmission models. The differences on a standard personality test between samples of Old Order Amish and Indiana rural young men from the same county and the decline of homicide in Medieval Europe are used as illustrative examples of the overall approach. It is shown that the decline of homicide is unremarkable under a threshold model while the differences between rural Amish and non-Amish young men are too large to be a plausible outcome of simple genetic selection in which assortative mating by affiliation is equivalent to truncation selection.

Persons with mental illnesses may experience stigma from their immediate family members in addition to other forms of stigma. Using semi-structured interviews, we investigated experiences of familial mental illness stigma among 15 people diagnosed with mental illnesses in a mid-sized city in Canada. We identified five themes that speak to participants’ experiences of familial mental illness stigma and ways to reduce it. The themes include the following: diagnosis as a ‘double-edged sword,’ potential familial isolation, familial stigma as societal stigma localized, stories of acceptance, and confronting potential familial mental illness stigma. Participants’ narratives indicate that familial mental illness stigma is rooted in the broader social or public stigma, which sees its way into familial relations as well. This stigma takes various forms, including relationship bias or unfair treatment, breakdown in romantic relationships, loss of status, verbal and emotional abuse, exclusion from decision-making, and alienation within their immediate and extended families. Familial mental illness stigma experiences negatively impact participant’s psychological well-being and personal empowerment. However, participants also shared ways that family members create supportive environments or actively confront or prevent stigma. Overall, this study has contributed to knowledge on mental illness stigma, particularly familial mental illness stigma from the perspective of participants living with a mental illness in a high-income country. Suggestions for future research include a focus on strategies to prevent ongoing familial mental illness stigma and large-scale studies to explore familial mental illness stigma to understand why families might perpetrate stigma.

Few studies have utilized person-centered approaches to examine co-occurrence of risk factors among pregnant women in low-and middle-income settings. The objective of this study was to utilize latent class analysis (LCA) to identify sociodemographic patterns and assess the association of these patterns on preterm birth (PTB) and/or low birth weight (LBW) in rural Mysore District, India. Secondary data analysis of a prospective cohort study among 1540 pregnant women was conducted. Latent class analysis was performed to identify distinct group memberships based on a chosen set of sociodemographic factors. Binary logistic regression was conducted to estimate the association between latent classes and preterm birth and low birth weight. LCA yielded four latent classes. Women belonging to Class 1 “low socioeconomic status (SES)/early marriage/multigravida/1 child or more”, had higher odds of preterm birth (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR): 95% Confidence Intervals (CI): 1.77, 95% CI: 1.05-2.97) compared to women in Class 4 “high SES/later marriage/primigravida/no children”. Women in Class 2 “low SES/later marriage/primigravida/no children” had higher odds of low birth weight (aOR: 2.52, 95% CI: 1.51-4.22) compared to women in Class 4. Women less than 20 years old were twice as likely to have PTB compared to women aged 25 years and older (aOR: 2.00, 95% CI: 1.08-3.71). Hypertension (>140/>90 mm/Hg) was a significant determinant of PTB (aOR: 2.28, 95% CI: 1.02-5.07). Furthermore, women with a previous LBW infant had higher odds of delivering a subsequent LBW infant (aOR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.40-3.29). Overall study findings highlighted that woman belonging to low socioeconomic status, and multigravida women had increased odds of preterm birth and low birth weight infants. Targeted government programs are crucial in reducing inequalities in preterm births and low birth weight infants in rural Mysore, India.

This study investigates regional variations in the factors associated with acceptance and actual experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) among married women in northern and southern Nigeria - two regions with distinct socio-cultural and economic differences. Data from the 2018 demographic and health survey are analysed to compare these two regions. The sample comprised married/living-with-partner women within the reproductive age of 15-49. Overall, a positive association exists between IPV experience and IPV acceptance, regardless of which is used as the outcome variable. Contrary to the notion that IPV is prevalent where its acceptance is high, this study finds that the reverse is true. IPV acceptance is significantly higher in the north than in the south (39.4% versus 14.7%), but the reverse is the case for the actual experience of IPV (20.1% versus 24.7%). Being employed and having access to the internet reduce the odds of IPV victimisation for women in the south, but increases the chances for northern women. Muslims in the north have significantly higher odds of IPV acceptance than their Christian counterparts in the same region, but the reverse is the case in the south. Regional differences also exist in the influence of decision-making, educational difference between spouses, and media exposure. While the cosmopolitan-success and conservative-failure hypothesis explains the regional differences in the acceptance of IPV, it fails to explain differences in the actual experience of IPV. The study provides alternative explanations for the regional differences in the experience of IPV and acceptance of it in Nigeria, and it points to the need for differing intervention programmes across regions. Notably, the study found that the association between justification of IPV and actual experience of it is bi-directional and suggests caution in making causal inferences.