Gender and population

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the proportion of overweight and obese people is growing in developing countries, especially in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). Recent results of researches show that obesity has become an epidemic in Brazil. Using data from the National Research on Social Inequalities (2008), this article examined association between religion and obesity in Brazil. Preliminary results showed a strong association between obesity and membership with mainline Protestant, Pentecostal, and Neopentecostal churches in Brazil, even after adjusting the factors that affect the Body Mass Index (BMI).

Using data from the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3-2005-2006) on currently married fecund women with at least one child and Cox-proportional hazard models, this study attempts to address the less familiar association between women’s autonomy and birth-to-conception intervals (BI) in India. It also examines whether women’s autonomy can explain much of the relationship between education and birth interval. It even examines whether education has any influence in the relationship between autonomy and birth intervals. Most research in this area has considered the association between women’s autonomy and contraceptive use and lower fertility. In addition, while some researcher (e.g., Jejeebhoy, 1995) have suggested that women’s autonomy may be a key pathway through which education influences fertility, others (e.g. Basu, 1996) have convincingly argued that there is still little quantitative evidence in support of the importance of women’s autonomy as a mediating factor between education and fertility.
Our results indicate that after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic factors and use of contraceptive for spacing purpose, women’s autonomy remained a significant predictor of birth-to-conception intervals. However, autonomy is not found mediating the relationship between education and birth intervals.

Population ageing is a triumph and a challenge for development in the 21st century. The population of Russia is rapidly ageing, and with ageing progress the need for thorough analysis of this process increases. Demographic development of Russia is characterized by very high mortality difference by sex and by significant imbalance between males and females in population age composition.

The paper aims at analysing gender differences in ageing development in the Russian Federation since the beginning of the 1990s.

Changes in number and percentage of the elderly (60+) and the number of males per 1000 females in older age groups are considered. Special attention is given to gender gap in life expectancy at older ages. Regional aspect is touched on, and comparisons with developed European countries are made.

The paper is based on censuses (including the last 2010 census) and data on vital events.

Ageing process in Russia is characterized by significant imbalance between males and females in population age structure, moreover, the older is the age the greater is imbalance. Male life expectancy is lower than female one, leading to high prevalence of widowhood, the latter increasing with age. Without taking account of gender differences, ageing policies are doomed to be ineffective.

This paper investigates sex-consciousness among child desiring Indian women in context of child mortality levels on the basis of three waves of Indian national family health survey INFHS (1992-2006). All the states in NFHS-I have been classified into four mortality Zones identified by ‘under five mortality’ during 0-4 years prior to survey date. An index for measuring sex-preference based on ideal family size and its sex composition has been used to quantify the relation between sex preference and under five mortality. An analysis of Parity Progression Ratio reveals that with increase in the number of sons women are reluctant to additional children. It has been observed that intensity of preference for son in India as whole has declined over period. Though, in general, longing for ‘more sons than daughter’s quite strong among Indian women, there are some courageous women except Punjab who are positively desirous to have more daughters than sons. The study also reveal that throughout the periods from 1992-2006; urban women, women with a better education and employed women have relatively less desire of sons over daughters. Desire of having at least one son is found to be mind set-up irrespective of the socioeconomic condition of family.

It is important to clarify whether gender inequalities in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa are explained by differences in the distributions of HIV risk factors, differences in the effects these risk factors, or some combination of both.
Data from Demographic and Health Survey and the AIDS Indicator Survey coming from Kenya, Lesotho and Tanzania were used. We used extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca method to decompose the gender inequality in HIV/AIDS prevalence.
After adjusting, female gender was associated with a higher prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Kenya and Lesotho, but not in Tanzania. Decomposition analyses demonstrated that in Kenya and Lesotho, gender inequality in HIV/AIDS was attributable to the difference in the effects of characteristics on HIV/AIDS. In Tanzania this inequality was explained by the differences in distributions of HIV risk factors between men and women.
These different patterns have important implications for policies to reduce gender inequalities in HIV/AIDS

The relationships between poverty, female autonomy and fertility are spelled out in everyday life although scientific causalities are complex to disentangle. This paper is based on two rounds of qualitative studies in rural Kenya. The two areas, in Western and Coast Provinces are characterized by high levels of poverty combined with variations in fertility development. After 1989 Kenya experienced fertility decline, which came to a halt from the end of the 1990s. Western Province follows this development, while in Coast only modest fertility changes have taken place. Given widespread poverty in both areas, this paper asks if women possess different spaces of autonomy, and if so, what implications can be traced for family planning and fertility. The first round of case studies was carried out in Bungoma, Western Province in 1988 (Jensen and Juma, 1989) and Kwale, Coast Province in 1991 (Jensen and Khasakhala, 1993). The second round was a follow-up of the previous studies, carried out in 2011. The case studies have been carried out just before the general fertility decline and at the end – at a time when the question is whether a new decline may be in motion.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), a common form of violence against women perpetrated by husband or intimate male partner, often happens in low developed countries. IPV is found to be associated with range of negative effects: often leads to still birth, premature delivery, low birth weight, high risk of STI, lower use of maternal health care etc. In India, at least half of battered wives reported the episode of violence while they were pregnant. However, there is no clear understanding about the association between IPV and unintended pregnancy in the context of India.
The present study examines the relationship between IPV and unintended pregnancy in India .The study uses data from third round of National Family and Health Survey conducted during 2005-2006. The original sample size is restricted to currently-married women of reproductive age who completed the surveys Domestic Violence Module and who had a pregnancy in the past five years. Using multinomial logistic regression, the study compares outcomes of current/last pregnancy (intended, mistimed and unwanted) by exposure to various types of IPV.
Women who ever experienced IPV showed consistently higher risks of unintended pregnancy in India. After adjusting for socio-demographic covariates and lifet

Poor maternal health in rural areas of Nigeria is one of the signs of major inequity between urban and rural areas in the country. Quantitative data was extracted from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Four sessions of Focus Group Discussions was conducted to provide additional insights into correlates of maternal health in rural communities. The analysed sample size was 14,315 women. Maternal health was measured by antenatal care, place of delivery, assistance during delivery and postnatal care. Statistical analysis was performed using the Stata data analysis software. Results show that at the most recent live birth; 62.5 percent of the sampled women had less than four antenatal care visits; 22.7 percent had facility delivery; 74.5 percent had unskilled assistance; and 20.9 percent received a postnatal check within two days of delivery. Results further show that: knowledge of any method of contraception significantly influences maternal health status; and women’s control over own healthcare significantly influences maternal health measures (p < 0.01). The study showed that urban rural disparity is a key concern that must be addressed to improve maternal health in Nigeria.

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has experienced a process of economic and social change that has enabled the reduction of the gender gap in some areas and reversed it in others. Demographic and urban transitions have enabled women to live longer and to have fewer children. They have surpassed men in education and reduced the gender gap in the labor market, although various forms of occupational segregation and wage discrimination remain. As elsewhere, the region has made advances in its epidemiological transition, but external causes of death have affected men much more than women, resulting in a growing surplus of women. Social achievements in the region have been reflected in higher levels of female participation in decision-making arenas, although parity is still far-off. The objective of this paper is to analyze recent reductions and reversals of the gender gap in the LAC region in the health, education, labor market and decision making arenas. This type of analysis is crucial for updating the debate on issues of gender and sustainable development, as set out in the ICPD Plan of Action (1994), Beijing Plataform (1995), Millennium Development Goals (2000) and The future we want (Rio + 20, 2012).

Viet Nam has exhibited some signs of high sex ratio at birth (SRB) for the first time in 2000 and confirmed high SRB at national level of 110.6 in the 2009 census data. This study is to examine these high SRB and to identify possible social-economic determinants such parental age, birth order, sex of previous birth, parental education and household economic status. We did analyses, including bivariate analysis and logistic regression, on data of 5940 births from 2004 to 2011 that were obtained from CHILILAB, a community-based periodic Demographic-Epidemiologic Surveillance System for Hai Duong. As a result, the SRB in the 2007 – 2011 period was found high, 116.6 boys/100 girls (CI: 109.7 – 123.5). The SRB was at 117 boys/100 girls among the first born children. Among the second children, the SRB was 123 if the previous birth was a girl and 91.4 (CI: 81.8 – 102), which is significantly lower than the normal level, if the previous birth was a boy. Among second born, the chance of being a girl was significantly higher if the first child was a boy. Our findings suggest that in a country with a small family size policy, sex-selective abortion may be used both to have a son and to have a daughter according to the sex of the previous children