"Where have all the people gone?" Recent inconsistencies between population growth and housing development in suburban Chicago

"An examination of recent growth in suburban Chicago suggests that rates of population and housing increase tend to vary principally by age of housing, and secondarily by distance from the central city's business district. Population loss or small increases relative to housing gains typified the most centrally located older suburbs. Although much higher rates of population and housing increase characterized newer places, especially those between 21 and 30 miles from the CBD, their population gain was smaller than that accompanying comparably high levels of residential development in earlier periods."

Migration and intervening opportunities

An analysis of factors affecting migration is presented. The authors "extend the investigation of the roles of information, intervening opportunities, and psychic costs by focussing on differences in migrant destinations with respect to the deterring effect of distance. [They develop] a reservation-wage model of migration which implies that the distance effect is weaker for high-wage destinations and stronger for low-wage destinations." The model is tested using data for Brazil, Japan, Mexico, the United States, and Venezuela.

Measuring accessibility to family planning services in rural Thailand

There are a variety of ways to conceptualize and measure accessibility to contraceptive services and supplies. Using detailed data for rural Thailand, a multiplicity of reasonable measures are developed that reflect time and/or distance to various government program outlets. Many of these are only moderately correlated with one another, and to an important extent, different measures show different associations with levels of contraceptive prevalence. Clearly there is a general need in this area of investigation to pay more attention to the measurement of accessibility as a community characteristic and to consider the sensitivity of results to alternate measures.

Socioeconomic and demographic correlates of medical care and health practices

Using a two-stage stratified sampling procedure, a representative random sample of 1021 rural families in North Arcot District of Tamil Nadu State in South India was studied to determine the inter-relationships of utilization of medical care and health behaviour with social, demographic and economic factors. The research was directed towards a better understanding of how medical and social deprivations are connected in a rural setting of India. Distance from a town, education, and accessibility of medical facilities seem to play a prominent role in the various decision-making processes of the family in utilization of the best available health care and in improving their health status. The policy implications arising from this study are outlined.

Assessment of obstetric high risk factors in a developing country

The detection of women with obstetric high-risk factors is now recognized as a major aim of antenatal care, especially in developing countries, and those factors most important in Papua New Guinea obstetric practice have been identified by a study of maternal deaths. The present study aimed to assess the value of the detection of these factors by comparing the outcomes of pregnancies with and without high risk factors. Home, health centre and hospital deliveries in two districts of Enga Province in the Papua New Guinea Highlands were studied. Of the total 2225 deliveries, 74% took place at home, the proximity of a health centre appearing to be a major determinant in the choice between home or supervised institutional delivery. Fifty-three per cent of women had at least one high risk factor, and 92% of these factors were historical. Eighty-two per cent of women had an uncomplicated normal delivery, while post-partum haemorrhage was the commonest complication, occurring in 7.6% of deliveries. This complication also caused all 4 maternal deaths. There was good correlation between delivery complications and the presence of high-risk factors, 70% of complications occurring in at-risk pregnancies. It is concluded that the detection of high-risk factors in pregnancy is very worthwhile. But, as a separate study has shown, the rate of detection antenatally could be improved, and until more health centres are constructed it will probably prove difficult to persuade all those at high risk to deliver under supervision.

Distance patterns of rural to urban migration in India: a comparative overview of Kerala and West Bengal

"This paper examines two hypotheses formulated by Ravenstein relating to migration and distance: namely, that the volume of migration tends to decrease with the increase in distance and that at shorter distances females are more migratory than males, but at longer distances males are more migratory than females. Based on [Indian] census data, the author seeks to discuss these two issues with regard to rural to city migration in Kerala and West Bengal in a comparative manner. In the main, it is suggested that Ravenstein's formulations hold good in the present case."

Providing primary health care with non-physicians

The definition of primary health care is basically the same, but the wide variety of concepts as to the form and type of worker required is largely due to variations in economic, demographic, socio-cultural and political factors. Whatever form it takes, in many parts of the developing world, it is increasingly clear that primary health care must be provided by non-physicians. The reasons for this trend are compelling, yet it is surprisingly opposed by the medical profession in many a developing country. Nonetheless, numerous field trials are being conducted in a variety of situations in several countries around the world. Non-physician primary health care workers vary from medical assistants and nurse practitioners to aide-level workers called village mobilizers, village volunteers, village aides and a variety of other names. The functions, limitations and training of such workers will need to be defined, so that an optimal combination of skills, knowledge and attitudes best suited to produce the desired effect on local health problems may be attained. The supervision of such workers by the physician and other health professionals will need to be developed in the spirit of the health team. An example of the use of non-physicians in providing primary health care in Sarawak is outlined.

Migration, genetic markers and race admixture in Curitiba, Brazil

One thousand Blacks and 1001 Whites from the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba were studied in relation to migration patterns, ABO and Rh blood groups, and haemoglobin types. Despite a lower socioeconomic level, Blacks migrated more than Whites. Carriers of abnormal haemoglobin types show about the same degree of mobility as those with normal haemoglobin only. As much as half of the genes present among the Blacks of this city may be of European origin, while persons classified as White may have from 3 to 19% of African ancestry.

Spatial mobility and reasons for migration of Japanese women

This paper discloses, istly, the spatial mobility of Japanese women and its change mainly between 1970 and 1980, through comparison with the men's mobility, in respect of distance of movement, age patterns, and labor force status, using population census data. Secondly, the chief reasons for the migration of women by types of migratory flows are examined using the data derived from the survey on reasons for migration conducted in 1981 by the Land Agency of the Government of Japan. Results show that the spatial mobility of Japanese women is smaller than that of men in long distance movements but is almost the same in short distance moves, and that the age pattern of spatial mobility of the women is nearly the same between both distances of movement. Also, it is disclosed that the mobility of women not in the labor force is higher for the whole country but lower in metropolitan areas than that for men. The prime reason for the migration of women is employment, the as same as that for men for the whole nation, but this varies between the types of migratory flows.