Despite attempts to control intestinal schistosomiasis through school-based mass drug administration (MDA) with praziquantel using school teachers in Uganda, less than 30% of the school children take the treatment in some areas. The aim of the study was to understand why the uptake of praziquantel among school children is low and to suggest strategies for improved uptake. This was a cross-sectional qualitative study in which 24 focus group discussions and 15 key informant interviews were conducted 2 months after MDA. The focus group discussions were held with school children in twelve primary schools and the key informant interviews were held with school teachers, sub-county health assistants and the District Vector Control Officer. The study shows that the low uptake of praziquantel among school children is a result of a complex interplay between individual, interpersonal, institutional, community and public policy factors. The individual and interpersonal factors underpinning the low uptake include inadequate information about schistosomiasis prevention, beliefs and attitudes in the community about treatment of schistosomiasis and shared concerns among children and teachers about the side-effects of praziquantel, especially when the drug is taken on an empty stomach. The institutional, policy and community factors include inadequate preparation and facilitation of teachers and the school feeding policy, which requires parents to take responsibility for providing their children with food while at school, yet many parents cannot meet the cost of a daily meal due to the prevailing poverty in the area. It is concluded that strategies to improve uptake of praziquantel among school children need to be multi-pronged addressing not only the preparation and motivation of teachers and health education for children, but also the economic and political aspects of drug distribution, including the school feeding policy.

Research on informed choice in modern contraceptive method acceptance by young married women is pertinent in the broader context of individual freedom and reproductive rights, especially in countries where women continue to have limited control over their reproductive and contraceptive choices. This study in India asked: (1) is young married women’s acceptance of specific modern contraceptive methods an informed choice? and (2) what are the enablers and barriers to informed choice? The study used data for currently married women aged 15–24 (N = 20,752) from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted in 2015–16. A Method Information Index (MII) was calculated as a measure of informed choice from the percentage of users who responded ‘yes’ to all three questions on: whether they were informed about methods other than the one they received, told about the method-specific side-effects, and advised what to do if they experienced side-effects. Binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to examine the adjusted effect of factors associated with the MII separately for female sterilization, the intrauterine device and the oral contraceptive pill, and a combined MII including all three methods plus injectables. One-fifth of the study women used any modern contraceptive method at the time of survey, of which only 36% had fully informed choice. The likelihood of being informed about the methods was significantly higher among those using the oral contraceptive pill (OR: 1.75, CI 1.58–1.94), IUD (OR: 2.23, CI 1.97–2.52) and injectables (OR: 1.37, CI 0.97–1.94) compared with those who were sterilized. Informed choice varied by region and the socioeconomic profile of the users. Inadequately informed choice violates the reproductive rights of young women and might result in higher post-use health problems, discontinuation of and unmet need for contraceptives, unintended pregnancies, induced abortions and regret, adversely affecting women’s health. Training of health/family planning workers in India about the importance of reproductive rights is urgently required to enhance informed contraceptive choice and improve the health of young married women.

Turkey has high levels of infant mortality and consanguineous marriages. It has had a high level of infant mortality for its economic level for many years. Over recent decades, although adult mortality rates have not been very different from those of other countries with similar socioeconomic structures, its life expectancy at birth has remained low due to its high infant mortality rate. This has been called the Turkish Puzzle. According to the Turkey Family Structure and Population Issues Survey, 27% of women had a consanguineous marriage in 1968. Subsequent Turkish Demographic and Health Surveys (TDHSs) found the rate of consanguineous marriages to be stagnated at 22–24%, with a resistance to reduction. According to the TDHS-2008, 24% of women had a consanguineous marriage. Numerous studies in various countries of the world have indicated that consanguineous marriages, particularly of first-degree, have the effect of increasing infant mortality. The main aim of this study was to assess the causal impact of consanguineous, particularly first-degree consanguineous, marriages on infant mortality, controlling for individual, cultural, bio-demographic and environmental factors. Data were merged from four Turkish DHS data sets (1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008). Multivariate analysis revealed that first-degree consanguineous marriages have increased infant mortality by 45% in Turkey: 57% in urban areas and 39% in rural areas. The results indicate that there is a causal relationship between consanguineous marriages and infant mortality. This finding should be taken into account when planning policies to reduce infant mortality in Turkey, and in other countries with high rates of consanguineous marriage and infant mortality.

Evidence from eleven samples indicates that the mean IQ of third world immigrants in the Netherlands is lower than the Dutch mean by approximately one standard deviation for Surinamese and Antillians, and by approximately one and a half standard deviations for Turks and Moroccans. Since IQ tests provide the best prediction of success in school and organizations, it could be that the immigrants’ lower mean IQ is an important factor in their low status on the Dutch labour market. The IQs of second-generation immigrants are rising.

Senegal is experiencing a rising obesity epidemic, due to the nutrition transition occurring in most African countries, and driven by sedentary behaviour and high-calorie dietary intake. In addition, the anthropological local drivers of the social valorization of processed high-calorie food and large body sizes could expose the population to obesity risk. This study aimed to determine the impact of these biocultural factors on the nutritional status of Senegalese adults. A mixed methods approach was used, including qualitative and quantitative studies. Between 2011 and 2013, fourteen focus group discussions (n=84) and a cross-sectional quantitative survey (n=313 women; n=284 men) of adults in three different socio-ecological areas of Senegal (rural: n=204; suburban: n=206; urban: n=187) were conducted. Dietary intake (Dietary Diversity Scores), physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), body weight norms (Body Size Scale), weight and health statuses (anthropometric measures and blood pressure) were measured. Middle-aged and older Senegalese women were found to value overweight/obesity more than younger Senegalese in all regions. In addition, young urban/suburban adults had a tendency for daily snacking whilst urban/suburban adults tended to be less physically active and had higher anthropometric means. A binary logistic regression model showed that being female, older, living in urban/suburban areas and valuing larger body size were independently associated with being overweight/obese, but not high-calorie diet. Univariate analyses showed that lower physical activity and higher socioeconomic status were associated with being overweight/obese. Finally, overweight/obesity, which is low in men, is associated with hypertension in the total sample. The nutrition transition is currently underway in Senegal’s urban/suburban areas, with older women being more affected. Since several specific biocultural factors jointly contribute to this phenomenon, the study’s findings suggest the need for local public health interventions that target women and which account for the anthropological specificities of the Senegalese population.

Many factors have contributed to the decline in China’s fertility level. Using China’s population census data from 1990, 2000 and 2010, the present study investigates the factors causing the decline in China’s fertility rate by decomposing changes in two fertility indices: the total fertility rate (TFR) and the net reproduction rate (NRR). The change in the TFR is decomposed into the change in the marital fertility rate (MFR) and the change in the proportion of married women (PMW). Four factors contribute to the change in the NRR. The following are the main findings. A drop in the MFR caused a decrease in the TFR and the NRR between 1989 and 2000. However, the change in MFR increased TFR and NRR between 2000 and 2010. Marriage postponement caused a decline in the fertility level between 1989 and 2000 as well as between 2000 and 2010. The effect of the MFR and marriage postponement varied with age and region and also between urban and rural areas.

Persistent low fertility rates are an increasing concern for countries with low fertility like Iran. Informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study examined the immediate factors influencing fertility intentions, using data from the 2012 Tehran Survey of Fertility Intentions. The findings show that more than half of young married adults in Tehran intend to have no more children. The multivariate analysis results indicate that individuals who view childbearing as being detrimental to their personal life, feel less normative pressure to have a/another child, and believe their childbearing decision is not contingent on the presence of economic resources required for childbearing, are more likely to want no (more) children or to be unsure rather than to want a/another child. Attitudes and normative pressure are dominant factors influencing the intention to have a first child, while the intention to have a second child is mainly affected by attitudes and perceived constraints. The policy implications of the results are discussed.

This note categorizes the evidence for the hypothesis that mammalian offspring sex ratios (proportions male) are causally related to the hormone levels of both parents around the time of conception. Most of the evidence may be acknowledged to be correlational and observational. As such it might be suspected of having been selected; or of having been subject to other forms of bias or confounding; or, at any rate, of being inadequate as a firm basis for causal inference. However, there are other types of evidence that are not vulnerable to these types of criticism. These are from the following sources: (1) previously neglected data from Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia; (2) fulfilled predictions; (3) genetics; and (4) a network of logically (mathematically) related propositions, for some of which there is overwhelming empirical evidence. It is suggested that this variety of evidence confers greater overall credibility on the hypothesis than would be the case if all the evidence were of the same observational/correlational status. This observational/correlational evidence is tabulated to illustrate its consistency.

Do males and females differ in general intelligence? Lynn (1994, 1998) and I (Mackintosh, 1996) agree that the answer to this question must depend on the answer to two prior questions: what is the definition of general intelligence, and what tests best measure it? Our disagreement arises partly from different answers to these prior questions, but also from differences in our reading of some not wholly consistent evidence. What answers might one give to these prior questions? They are not independent, for a possible (severely operational) definition of general intelligence is that it is a person's score on one particular IQ test battery. Let us start with that simple possibility.

It has long been known that mild mental retardation (meaning that associated with an IQ in the 50–69 range) shows a strong tendency to run in families and that there is a much increased recurrence risk if either a parent or a sib has mental retardation. For example, Reed & Reed (1965) found that, having had one retarded child, the chance of a further retarded child was 6% if both parents and their sibs were ‘normal’, 13% if both parents were normal but one had a retarded sib, 20% if one parent was retarded, and 42% if both were retarded. A somewhat similar gradient was found in the more recent study by Bundey, Thake & Todd (1989). The appreciation that mild mental retardation was so strongly familial had led Lewis (1933) some years earlier to refer to it as ’subcultural‘ (meaning that it was a normal variation), in order to differentiate it from severe mental retardation, which was viewed as ‘pathological’. Penrose (1938, 1963) made the same classificatory distinction and the utility of a two-group approach became generally accepted (Burack, 1990).

Seasonal variation in human natality is examined over a period of several decades for an isolated Inuit settlement in the central Canadian Arctic. The results substantiate earlier reports of the existence of a birth season in the first half of the year. The 2-decade period coinciding with the gradual concentration of the regional population into the settlement experienced a temporary disruption of this traditional rhythmic pattern. Family planning has been introduced in the modern period, yet birth seasonality is even more pronounced than during previous decades. Both planned and unplanned births occur predominantly in the first half of the year, indicating the paramount importance of behavioural and social responses to extreme seasonal variation.

Sixty-eight engaged couples, 113 newly weds, and 222 couples married for over 5 years, were studied for a number of physical, psychological and socioeconomic traits. The measurements were repeated a year later. Correlations were highest for age (r = 0·454, 0·903 and 0·888 respectively). They were also high for height (but not weight), neuroticism (but not extroversion), occupation, education, religion and smoking. Similarities were already present about the time of marriage, with little convergence or divergence. Thus, men do not grow to resemble their wives, nor vice versa.

This study examines the role of marriage form in infant mortality and tests the relative effects and mechanisms through which polygyny affects infant survival. A sample of infants born in the 5 years preceding the 1988 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey was used. A causal model was constructed and polygyny was found to be an important mediating factor in understanding infant survival. The findings highlight the relevance of family structure (polygyny) as an intervening factor, but also reveal the complex role of ethnicity, dietary supplement and birth interval in accounting for infant survival.

In a medical practice in which artificial insemination has been carried out for over 40 years, 40% of women inseminated with donor semen (AID), and 21% inseminated with homologous semen (AIH) gave birth to children. Up to December 1975, 399 pregnancies were achieved using fresh donor semen and nineteen with deep-frozen semen. There was no apparent increase in the incidence of birth anomalies in children conceived with frozen semen, nor was there a significant increase in the incidence of still-births, ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage when compared to the rate in the normal population. Eight conceptions were achieved using deep-frozen semen stored for 6 months or longer, and one pregnancy was achieved with a specimen frozen for 3 years. Good cryosurvial was observed in semen frozen for up to 6·7 years. The development of many of the children was followed, and it was concluded that the great majority of marriages into which AID children were born, were undoubtedly enriched and psychological and sociological problems were few. The whole field still awaits the implementation of recommendations concerning the legal status of children born as a result of AID.

One of the major goals of health programmes in the developing world is to improve maternal and child health. Two important steps towards achieving this goal are the promotion of birth spacing and the promotion of breast-feeding. Since birth spacing requires some type of fertility control measures, modern contraceptive programmes are becoming an integral part of maternal and child health programmes. The next logical question would then appear to be, ‘What are the appropriate contraceptives, particularly among the modern methods, for use during lactation ?’

In this paper, longitudinal data from northern Ghana is used to assess the effects of encouragement to use family planning that men receive from their personal network partners on the adoption of modern contraception by their wives. The study tests a conceptual model that, in addition to the effect of men’s network encouragement, incorporates the effect of encouragement to use family planning that women receive from their respective network partners and the effect of spousal communication on reproductive matters and approval of family planning. Results show that encouragement received by men from their social networks significantly increases the likelihood of subsequent contraceptive use by their wives but this effect operates primarily by galvanizing spousal communication on reproductive matters. The effect of encouragement received by women from their respective network partners is largely independent from the effect of male network encouragement but it influences contraceptive adoption both directly and through spousal communication.

Obesity indicators are useful clinical tools in the measurement of obesity, but it is important for clinicians to appropriately interpret their values in individuals with different ethnicities. Future research is needed to identify optimal cut-offs that can predict the occurrence of cardio-metabolic comorbidities in individuals of different ethnic descent. Assessment of more recently developed indicators like the Edmonton Obesity Staging System and visceral adipose tissue are able to appropriately identify metabolically at-risk individuals.

Data on the fertility of mothers and daughters in 10,931 mother–daughter pairs were obtained from family reconstitution studies based on English parish registers between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. These data indicate that there is no association between the fecundity of daughters and that of their mothers.

Analyses of height variation using the 1970 UK national cohort study (12,508 children at age 10 and 5470 at age 16) found clear evidence that children of higher socioeconomic status (as measured by social class, crowding, tenure, type of accommodation, income and receipt of government financial assistance) were on average taller than children of lower socioeconomic status but there was little or no difference in average stature between children living in urban or rural areas. Significant differences in height remained for most of the variables after removing the effects of father’s social class suggesting that reliance on social class per se to explain height variation is inadvisable.

Birth order and family size have been studied in a representative sample (10,000) of the adult population of Great Britain. This was done to test theoretical predictions about the ways in which the birth-order distribution in a population sample will be biased by secular changes in family size. The principal predictions were that, in a sample born during a period when family size was decreasing, the distribution of birth ranks in the larger families would be biased towards an over-representation of later born subjects (i.e. those lower in birth order), while in smaller families there would be an under-representation of later born. In a sample born during a period when family size was increasing, the reverse effects would occur. It was also predicted that among subjects from large families there would be an excess of females; and that the extent of the bias due to decrease in family size would be greatest in the unskilled and least in the highly skilled social classes.

The findings confirmed these predictions. The sample also showed an un-predicted excess of subjects in the middle ranks of families. It is suggested that the hypothesis of birth rate bias may be used for predicting the type of birth-order distribution to be expected in a sample of any population.