Cognitive orientation and genital infections in young women

The purpose was to explore the psychological determinants of common genital infections in young women. The study was done in the framework of the cognitive orientation theory which assumes that cognition guides behavior and provides predictions of behaviors and psychophysiological phenomena. We expected that beliefs of four types (about self, norms, goals, and general) would predict the occurrence and/or frequency of 17 gynecological symptoms (e.g., itching, swelling, different vaginal discharges, abscesses). The subjects were 195 female volunteers, undergraduates, about 23 years old, without gross gynecological disorders, mostly (87.7%) unmarried, mostly (83.6%) having had intercourse. They were administered anonymously questionnaires about demographic variables, frequency and treatment of gynecological symptoms and 3 urological ones (for control), and about cognitive orientation that referred to pretested themes (e.g., assertiveness, hypochondriasis). Stepwise discriminant and regression analyses showed that the belief types enabled predicting the occurrence and frequency of all symptoms, with a mean 34.5% improvement over the 50% chance level, accounting for 45.7-67.2% of the variance. Also the urological symptoms were predicted although at a lower level. Discussion focuses on the specificity of cognitive-motivational determinants and their role in producing conditions favoring physical pathology.

Fertility and suicide rates: a time series analysis in the United States

In a time series study of the USA from 1933 to 1984, fertility rates were associated with the suicide rates of those aged 15-44. The higher the fertility rate the lower the suicide rate for these age groups, for both whites and non-whites, and for both men and women. The results were seen as supporting Durkheim's theory of suicide.

Barrier methods of contraception and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

This North Carolina-based case-control study examined risk factors for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Cases were 103 women with biopsy-confirmed CIN II or III who were recruited from a referral dysplasia clinic. Controls were 258 family practice patients with normal cervical cytology. All subjects were interviewed regarding their sexual and reproductive history, Pap smear screening, active and passive cigarette exposures, and contraceptive use patterns. When compared with controls, cases were half as likely to have ever used barrier methods of contraception; the adjusted odds ratio was 0.5 (95% CI 0.2-0.9). The risk of CIN II/III decreased further with increasing years of barrier method use. Recency, latency, and age at first barrier method use were all associated with a reduced risk of CIN. Men and women should carefully consider the range of benefits of barrier method use as a means to reduce their risk of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and cervical neoplasia.

Infant mortality and crisis in Mexico

Data derived from the Encuesta Nacional de Fecundidad y Salud (ENFES) confirm that overall levels of infant mortality in Mexico have been steadily declining. However, a more specific analysis furnishes evidence that this decline has occurred at varying rates within different social groups, reflecting an increase in social inequalities. The analytical strategy used in this article leads to three basic conclusions: (1) the impact of the economic crisis on infant mortality is reflected not in a reversal of the declining trend but an increase in social inequalities; (2) certain variables universally accepted as determinants of infant mortality, such as mother's education, seem nonsignificant for some social sectors; and (3) certain biodemographic characteristics assumed to have a uniform mortality-related behavior vary among sectors, suggesting that even these constants are determined by social factors.

[An analysis of the factors influencing the use of IUD]

An introduction of the method of the theory of quantification II is given, and it is applied to evaluation of the factors influencing the use of IUD. From the epidemiological data obtained in Jilin City, eight more important factors were screened. These factors are age of first parturition, age of first menses, condition of putting the IUD in, number of early stage induced abortion, number of gestation, labour posture, labour intensity and number of parturition. By comparing the results of analysis between the theory of the quantification and the Bayes discrimination analysis, it is shown that the former method is more objective and therefore the results are more reliable.

Infecundity and subfertility among the rural population of Ethiopia

A 1980-81 survey of the rural population of Ethiopia found high levels of infecundity and subfertility, although there was considerable variation by region, ethnicity and age of women. Higher levels of infecundity were geographically concentrated in a broad belt that ran from the south and south-west of the country, across to the north-east. The analyses suggest that infecundity is influenced by ecological factors, more than by ethnicity.

A nonparametric approach to analyzing large human populations

There are many statistical techniques that require the assumption that the population being studied is normally distributed--regression analysis, multivariate analysis, time series analysis, and so on. Unfortunately, as the development of survey sampling has long acknowledged, large human populations are usually stratified into several different subpopulations. Since the boundaries between the strata are somewhat blurred, they are not independent, so the overall distribution of the population tends to be multimodal rather than normal. In this paper, a technique is developed to find these multimodal techniques using nonparametric density estimation. Its effectiveness is demonstrated by means of an example.

Levels of sexual activity among adolescent males in the United States

Although three-fifths of adolescent males aged 15-19 say they have had sexual intercourse, analyses of data from the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males indicate that their level of sexual activity is relatively moderate. The data show that among sexually experienced young men the mean number of partners in the last 12 months is 1.9, and the mean frequency of intercourse in the last four weeks is 2.7 times. Black males have had more partners than white or Hispanic males; however, after the number of years since first intercourse are controlled for, these differences disappear. On average, sexually experienced youth spent six out of the last 12 months with no sexual partner, and only 21 percent of sexually active males had more than one partner in any month in the last year. Comparisons with 1979 data suggest that proportionately more adolescents were sexually experienced in 1988, but fewer non-black males had first intercourse before their 15th birthday. The number of partners since first intercourse and in the past four weeks appears to have decreased, as has the frequency of intercourse in the last four weeks.

The relationship between menstrual phase and the P3 component of ERPs

Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral ratings were collected from 30 female subjects who were exposed to picture slides. The slides belonged to five affective categories whose content was babies, dermatological cases, ordinary people, male models, and female models. Based on the day of testing relative to their menstrual cycle, the subjects were grouped according to their expected levels of androgens, estrogen, or progesterone. The data were examined to determine whether any ERP component or behavioral rating (non-erotic/erotic, unpleasant/pleasant, simple/complex, and low arousal/high arousal) varied as a function of subjects' hormone defined menstrual phase. Only the P3 component was sensitive to menstrual phase. The P3 to babies and male models was largest when progesterone levels were high. High progesterone was also associated with a decrease in the complexity and eroticism of all slide categories. An increase in the pleasantness of all categories was evident when estrogen levels were high. The results are interpreted as support for an "adaptive context updating" theory of the P3 component of ERPs.

Effect of reproductive status changes on family functioning and well-being of mothers and daughters

Associations among family relations, mother reproductive status, daughter reproductive timing, and well-being were examined in 144 mothers and their adolescent daughters. First, effects of mother reproductive status and daughter reproductive timing on reports of family functioning were explored. Mothers of early maturing daughters perceived less family conflict than did those with on-time or late daughters. Second, the correlates of mother and daughter well-being were examined. Maternal perceptions of family cohesion were associated negatively with maternal depressive affect and positively with maternal body image. Maternal dieting behavior and bulimic symptoms were higher in postmenstrual mothers. For daughters, maternal perceptions of family cohesion were associated negatively with dieting and bulimic symptoms, and positively with body image. The interaction between mother menstrual status and daughter age at first menarche also influenced daughter dieting. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for mother-daughter interaction during the adolescent years.

A longitudinal study of back pain and radiological changes in the lumbar spines of middle aged women. I. Clinical findings

The natural history of low back pain was evaluated over a nine year period in two groups of middle aged Dutch women selected from the general population. One group had recurrent back pain (n = 236) and the other group had never experienced back pain (n = 241). At the onset of the study recurrent back pain was associated with smoking, previous use of the 'pill', pain in other joints, frequent headaches, and restricted lumbar spine movement. Nine years later 170 (72%) of the group with back pain had continuing pain and 58 (24%) of the group without previous back pain had incident pain. Pain in other joints, especially the hip and knee, was a predictor of continuing and incident pain but age, body mass index, and smoking were not.

The relationship between sociodemographic variables and pregnancy loss in a rural area of Bangladesh

This study examines the relationship between eight sociodemographic variables and the risk of pregnancy loss in a rural area of Bangladesh. The risks of spontaneous miscarriage and stillbirth were significantly associated with maternal age, pregnancy order and previous pregnancy wastage.

[[A hazard analysis of birth timing in Japan since the 1960s]]

"This paper carried out a multivariate hazard analysis of the first, second and third birth timings by applying [a] log-logistic model. The results are as follows: (1) When wives are employed, the first, second and third birth hazards are all smaller than others....(2) Coresiding with couple's parents is likely to raise the first, second and third birth hazards irrespective of wife's employment status; (3) Wives with tertiary level education are accompanied by a smaller first birth hazard compared with others, while wife's educational attainment does not show any effect on the second and third birth hazards; (4) White-collar husbands are associated with a smaller first birth hazard when their wife is employed; (5) Even after controlling for several background variables, the first, second and third birth timings were accelerated in the cohorts of the late 1960s. This result suggests that the birth timing change in the late 1960s was caused by some heterogeneity which is not considered in this study." An English summary is available from the author.

Why do Chinese women practice contraception? The case of rural Jilin Province

This study focuses on the relationship between contraceptive behavior, family size preferences, and perceptions of the one-child policy among young Chinese women in rural areas of Jilin Province. In 1985, about 85 percent of rural married women with one surviving child were practicing contraception, although most of them reported two as their ideal number of children. Most women with one surviving child, including those with one-child certificates, were practicing contraception in response to the government campaign, while more than half of women with two or more children were doing so voluntarily. Most of the women with one child were using the IUD, whereas more than half of women with two or more children were sterilized. Through multivariate analysis of contraceptive behavior and method choice, additional factors were found to be associated with the contraceptive behavior of rural Jilin women; achievement of their ideal family size was a significant factor in the voluntary practice of contraception as well as in contraceptive method choice. Implications of the results are discussed.

Determinants of rural and urban fertility differentials in Nigeria

Whatever proximate variables are examined, their differential effects on rural and urban fertility are small. This indicates that no major disturbance has taken place in urban or rural reproductive norms. However, two possible reasons for the converging pattern of rural and urban fertility in Nigeria are identified. One is that urban mothers in the first half of the childbearing age range have higher fertility than their rural counterparts. The other is that breast-feeding and post-partum abstinence, which are the major determinants of marital fertility, exert a more depressing influence on rural than urban fertility.