The purpose of this study was to show the differences in the mortality rates of children from Catholic and Lutheran families in 19th century Poznań, and to elucidate the causes of these differences. Data from Catholic and Lutheran parish death registers were used. The infant death rate (IDR), neonatal and postneonatal death rates and life table biometric functions were calculated and causes of deaths were characterized. The worst child mortality values (IDR=394.4; neonatal and postneonatal death rates, respectively, 117.1 and 277.4; e0=16.14 years; Crow's Index=2.47) were obtained for the poor Catholic Parish of St Margaret. The lowest infant and neonatal and postneonatal death rates were observed to have occurred in the Catholic Parish of St Maria Magdalena situated in the city's more affluent central area (mortality rates, respectively, 269.9, 93.1 and 176.9; e0=24.63 years; Crow's Index=0.96). The widest range of differences with regard to death rates was found for the Lutheran Parish of St Cross (the infant, neonatal and postneonatal death rates were, respectively, 293.1, 99.1 and 193.9; e0=28.03 years; Crow's Index=0.92). The St Cross Parish encompassed a fairly large area of the city characterized by varying ecological conditions. Among infants and young children from the three studied populations a high frequency of deaths due to infectious diseases, diarrhoeas, dysenteries and tuberculosis were observed. Differences in the mortality of children from Catholic and Lutheran families in 19th century Poznań resulted from ecological conditions, among which water played the most important role, rather than from religious differences.

After a decade of fertility decline, Ghana’s fertility and the level of unmet need for contraception stalled in mid-transition in the late 1990s. Although the literature acknowledges this, the geographical patterns in unmet need have not been adequately documented. Spatial analysis of unmet need can reveal differences in usage and provision of contraceptive commodities, thereby pointing to geographical areas where contraceptive programmes should be strengthened. This study examines the geographical variation of the risk of mistimed and unwanted pregnancies between rural communities and also between urban communities of the three ecological zones of Ghana. The study also investigates if geographical differences in the risks of mistimed and unwanted pregnancies changed during the period when unmet need stalled at the national level. A multilevel regression model was applied to pooled data from the 1998 and 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys to examine the determinants of the risk of unintended pregnancies, while controlling for clustering of outcomes within communities. The results show that between the two surveys, there was no significant change in the levels of risk of mistimed and unwanted pregnancy. However, geographical heterogeneity in the risk of mistimed and unwanted pregnancy was observed, after controlling for relevant predictors. This showed concentration of mistimed pregnancies in some rural communities relative to others, and variation in the risk of unwanted pregnancies between urban communities. The results give a clear indication that bridging the inequality gap in contraceptive use requires programmes that are area-specific.

Consanguineous marriage is the union of individuals having at least one common ancestor. The present cross-sectional study was done in order to illustrate the prevalence and types of consanguineous marriages in the Syrian Arab Republic. Data on consanguineous marriages were collected using a simple questionnaire. The total number of couples in this study was 67,958 (urban areas: 36,574 couples; rural areas: 31,384 couples) from the following provinces: Damascus, Hamah, Tartous, Latakia, Al Raqa, Homs, Edlep and Aleppo. In each province urban and rural areas were surveyed. Consanguineous marriage was classified by the degree of relationship between couples: double first cousins (F=1/8), first cousins (F=1/16), second cousins (F=1/64) and beyond second cousins (F<1/64). The coefficient of inbreeding (F) was calculated for each couple and the mean coefficient of inbreeding (α) estimated for the population of each province, stratified by rural and urban areas. The results showed that the overall frequency of consanguinity was 30.3% in urban and 39.8% in rural areas. Total rate of consanguinity was found to be 35.4%. The equivalent mean inbreeding coefficient (α) was 0.0203 and 0.0265 in urban and rural areas, respectively. The mean proportion of consanguineous marriages ranged from 67.5% in Al Raqa province to 22.1% in Latakia province. The α-value ranged from 0.0358 to 0.0127 in these two provinces, respectively. The western and north-western provinces (including Tartous, Lattakia and Edlep) recorded lower levels of inbreeding than the central, northern and southern provinces. The overall α-value was estimated to be about 0.0236 for the studied populations. First cousin marriages (with 20.9%) were the most common type of consanguineous marriages, followed by double first cousin (with 7.8%) and second cousin marriages (with 3.3%), and beyond second cousin was the least common type.

In Lesotho, the risk of mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) of HIV is substantial; women of childbearing age have a high HIV prevalence rate (26·4%), low knowledge of HIV status and a total fertility rate of 3·5 births per woman. An effective means of preventing MTCT is to reduce unwanted fertility. This paper examines the unmet need for contraception to limit and space births among HIV-positive women in Lesotho aged 15–49 years, using the 2004 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey. HIV-positive women have their need for contraception unmet in almost one-third of cases, and multivariate analysis reveals this unmet need is most likely amongst the poor and amongst those not approving of family planning. Urgent action is needed to lower the level of unmet need and reduce MTCT. A constructive strategy is to improve access to family planning for all women in Lesotho, irrespective of HIV status, and, more specifically, integrate family planning with MTCT prevention and voluntary counselling and testing services.

Secondary analysis of the trends and correlates of consanguinity in the Palestinian Territories was conducted using data from two separate surveys in 1995 and 2004. The analysis was conducted on ever-married women aged 15–54 who were asked about their relation to their husband in both surveys. A total of 16,197 women in 1995 and 4971 women in 2004 were successfully interviewed. Consanguinity was found to be widely practised in the Palestinian Territories with rates of total consanguinity reaching 45% of all marriages in 2004. Analysis was conducted with the data from the two surveys combined and this indicated that consanguinity was significantly decreasing with time after controlling for other variables. Age of the women, their age at marriage, region and locality type they lived in and their standard of living were all found to be significant predictors of consanguinity. The education level of the women was not found to be significant. After controlling for the survey year, women’s labour force status was also found to be a non-significant predictor of consanguinity. Although consanguinity was found to be significantly decreasing slowly with time after controlling for other variables, the future trends of consanguinity are not known due to the unstable political situation in the territories, which could have a direct effect on marriage patterns.

Decreasing population levels due to declining birth rates are becoming a potentially serious social problem in developed and rapidly developing countries. China urgently needed to reduce birth rates so that its population would decline to a sustainable level, and the family planning policy designed to achieve this goal has largely succeeded. However, continuing to pursue this policy is leading to serious, unanticipated problems such as a shift in the country's population distribution towards the elderly and increasing difficulty supporting that elderly population. Social and political changes that promoted low birth rates and the lack of effective policies to encourage higher birth rates suggest that mitigating the consequences of the predicted population decline will depend on a revised approach based on achieving sustainable birth rates.

Results are reported for mean IQs on the WAIS-R in Sudan in 1987 and 2007. There was a gain of 4·05 Full Scale IQ points over the 20-year period, representing a gain of 2·05 IQ points a decade. The Verbal IQ showed a loss of 1·65 IQ points, while the Performance IQ showed a gain of 7·2 IQ points. These results are broadly consistent with those in economically developed countries in showing that mean IQ on the WAIS-R has increased in Sudan, and the Performance IQ has increased more than the Verbal IQ.

Some socioeconomic and demographic factors contributing to the use of condoms among bar maids were studied in selected urban areas in Tanzania. Bar maids were classified according to whether or not they use condoms, and logistic regression was used in the analysis. Of the demographic variables studied, age, marital status, education level, use of alcohol and wage rate showed a significant relationship at the 1% level between individual factors and use of condoms. The odds ratios show that girls aged 10–14 are over 18,000 times more likely not to use condoms compared with women aged 30 and above. Those who drink are 6·6 times (1/0·165) less likely to use condoms compared with those who do not drink. In other words, alcohol consumption can be a stimulus for an individual not to use condoms. It is clear that young girls who drink are at the highest risk of contracting HIV/AIDS in comparison with older females. A multiple logistic regression model shows all the aforementioned factors to be significant at the 1% level. A policy recommendation is made that the government should impose restrictions as far as employment of bar maids is concerned.

Stelvio, Martello and Curon, three villages of the Venosta Valley, South Tyrol (Italy), were recently included in a large genetic survey because of their isolation. This study focuses on the long-term reproductive behaviour of these villages. Family size, age at marriage and marital fertility were estimated based on a genealogy going back in the 17th century. Marriage behaviour was characterized by an elevated age at marriage and a large proportion of adults never getting married. Marital fertility was among the highest worldwide, because couples tried to use the short time at their disposal to have the largest possible number of children. Together with the already known null population expansion and high geographic endogamy rates, the reduced number of siblings who had the opportunity to get married could have favoured an increased genetic homogeneity.

The aim of this study was to determine the degree to which general body fatness variation, presented by body mass index (BMI), the sum of the three skinfold thicknesses (TST) (triceps, subscapular, abdominal) and percentage of body fat (%FAT), can be explained by socioeconomic status (SES) and lifestyle. The cross-sectional, population-based survey was of 259 healthy working males aged 20–30 from the city of Cracow, Poland. Objective anthropometric measurements, bioelectrical impedance analysis, the results of motor fitness tests and social and lifestyle data from a questionnaire were analysed. The independent variables were: age, socioeconomic status (birthplace, place of residence until the age of 14, social class, educational level and the type of work done) and lifestyle elements (smoking habits, dietary habits, family obesity resemblance, sport activity in the past, leisure time physical activity and level of motor fitness). Three separate full models were created using stepwise straightforward regression with BMI, TST and %FAT as dependent variables. The highest autonomous influence on BMI and %FAT was ascribed to age and family obesity resemblance, whereas variation in TST was explained by level of motor fitness, age, city as a place of residence until the age of 14 and family obesity resemblance. Although the analysed variables explained only from 8% (BMI) to 13% (TST) of body fatness variation, indicating at the same time that most variations are explained by other variables, the impact of lifestyle family-shared factors on body fatness seems to be significant.