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Biomedical subjects

C M Suchindran

Publications and source records attributed to C M Suchindran.

42 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Age at return marriage and timing of first birth in India's Uttar Pradesh and Kerala states.

The study investigates the relationship between age at marriage and the length of first birth interval in two states of India: Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. Life tables of first-birth intervals and median first-birth intervals are computed for several subgroups of the study population. Multivariate hazards modelling technique is used to study the net effect of age at marriage, controlling for a multiple of socioeconomic factors. The result shows that the average first-birth interval varies by age at marriage and is much longer in Uttar Pradesh than in Kerala.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Smoothed breastfeeding durations and waiting time to conception.

Breastfeeding beyond the resumption of mother's menstruation plays a significant role in the proximate determinants of fertility. Breastfeeding and postpartum amenorrhoea data collected from retrospective surveys usually exhibit digit preferences. Here, these heaping errors were smoothed by B-spline and used in multivariate models of risk of conception to investigate the contraceptive effect of breastfeeding. The data used come from a 1987 Indian survey. Results show that lactation, after mother's menses resume, reduces the risk of conception. Heaping in breastfeeding data attenuates this relationship. When adjustment is made, breastfeeding reduced the rate of conception by 47 per cent; the reduction, with adjusted data, was 63 per cent.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Analysis of contraceptive discontinuation in six developing countries from durations of use at survey.

We conduct a cross-national study of contraceptive discontinuation among currently married nonsterilized contracepting women in Bolivia, Egypt, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Zimbabwe using the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). Since the DHS contains no true completed epochs of contraceptive use, the distribution of use times at survey is used to approximate the distribution of the completed epochs using the renewal theorem. Two techniques based on this approximation are used. The first technique uses local linear regression smoothing of a histogram estimate of the use time at survey pdf which is converted into an estimate of the discontinuation probability function. The second technique poses a proportional hazards Weibull distribution for the discontinuation probability function which is then converted into a model for the use times at survey. This second technique is used to model the observed variations in use across countries while controlling for other sociodemographic factors such as children ever born, age, and education, as well as a variable which encodes knowledge of the fertility cycle. Pill discontinuation probabilities range from 0.12 to 0.47 in the first year. IUD discontinuation probabilities range from 0.18 to 0.53 in the first year. Discontinuation probabilities in Egypt over all methods are in agreement with those reported in Ali and Cleland (1995). Logged relative risks of pill discontinuation range from -0.94 (Sri Lanka) to 0 (Kenya), while logged relative risks of IUD discontinuation range from -0.53 (Sri Lanka) to 0.41 (Zimbabwe). The ordering of risks of pill discontinuation among the six countries considered is in agreement with the ordering of total fertility rates excerpted from Westoff (1991).

Contraception Behavior↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Influences of mother's work, childhood place of residence, and exposure to media on breast-feeding patterns: experience of Nigeria and Uganda.

This study uses data from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey collected in 1990 and the Ugandan Demographic and Health Survey collected in 1995 to examine the implications of mother's work, childhood place of residence, and exposure to the media for breast-feeding patterns (exclusivity and intensity) in Nigeria and Uganda. Nigeria and Uganda present an interesting contrast because Nigeria is more modernized and economically developed than Uganda, thus providing a good indication of the influence of modernization on breast-feeding patterns. Mother's work status is defined by considering whether mothers earned cash from work and took their children to work, hence emphasizing the compatibility of work with child care. Work least compatible with child care had a negative effect on breast-feeding intensity in Nigeria. The negative effect of mother's work on exclusive breast-feeding (that is, if the mothers used formula or milk instead) observed for some working mothers in Nigeria and Uganda was partly confounded by urban residence, exposure to media, and other socioeconomic factors. Mother's work did not have a negative effect on breast-feeding intensity in Uganda. The relationship between mother's work, urban residence, media exposure, and breast-feeding practice seems to be stronger in Nigeria than Uganda.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Demographic, behavioral, biochemical, and dietary correlates of plasma triglycerides. Lipid Research Clinics Program Prevalence Study.

Few studies have simultaneously examined the relationship of triglyceride levels with a wide variety of potential covariates. Thus, the present study was designed to assess in a large, free-living population the association of fasting plasma triglyceride values with selected demographic, behavioral, biochemical, and dietary measures. These analyses were done using data obtained from 5189 white men and women aged 20 to 69 years who participated in the Lipid Research Clinics Program Prevalence Study. Of the eight nondietary factors examined, age, Quetelet Index, fasting plasma glucose, and cigarette smoking were strongly, positively associated (p less than 0.0001) with triglycerides in men and in women not using gonadal hormones. Among women using oral contraceptives or estrogens, only Quetelet Index (p less than 0.01) and cigarette smoking (p = 0.01) were significantly related to triglyceride values. Physical activity was inversely associated (p less than 0.0001) and use of diuretic medications was positively related (p less than 0.01) to triglycerides only in men. Results of analyses of triglycerides and six selected dietary measures varied by age, sex, and hormone-use subgroups. Although none of the dietary variables showed consistent associations with triglycerides across all of the subgroups, triglycerides tended to be inversely associated with total calories per kilogram of body weight and the percentage of calories as dietary fat.

Adult↗