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Unintended pregnancies may be associated with an increased occurrence of low birth weight infants and other problems (1). To assist in the prevention of unintended pregnancies, in 1988-1989 the New York State Family Planning Program (NYSFPP) surveyed reproductive-aged women (15-44 years of age) in New York to estimate family planning needs (2). This report presents the results from that survey regarding unintended pregnancy.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based acquired immunologic deficiency syndrome (AIDS) educational intervention in young adults. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used. Two townships in Kunshan county, matched by socioeconomic characteristics, were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Eight hundred young adults aged 18-30 were recruited from the two townships as study subjects. A 12-month comprehensive educational intervention on AIDS prevention was conducted in the intervention group through local family planning services. RESULTS: After intervention, subjects in intervention group significantly improved their knowledge on AIDS and attitudes related to AIDS prevention. Reported rate of condom use during the last episode of sexual intercourse increased from 8.5% at baseline to 14.4% after intervention (chi 2 = 4.66, P = 0.030 8). No obvious change was observed among subjects in control group. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the feasibility of integration of AIDS educational intervention into the existing family planning services. Integration of AIDS programs into family planning program should be considered as a realistic approach for AIDS control in China.
This article investigates the influence of gender ideology on number of children wanted, son preference, family-size discussions and decision-making, and use of birth control in a rural Ekiti Yoruba village in southwestern Nigeria. Interview and survey data indicate that attitudes about these matters vary more with age than with sex, suggesting that both women and men subscribe to the prevailing gender ideology of male authority in matters of family size and composition. However, women and men differ about who decides family size, largely because the ideal of fathers' financial support of their children is sometimes belied by practice. The article concludes with a discussion of the strategies that husbands and wives employ to obtain their reproductive goals, and their implications for family planning programs in Nigeria.
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The authors, after general consideration of family planning programs, present a study of 22714 women, who, in the decade 1983-1993, required contraceptive protection from the Family Planning Centers in the region of Vigevano (Italy). The authors underline the importance of a protocol used before beginning treatment to help prevent women receiving methods carrying too great a health risk. The results show a very high prevalence of oral contraception, increasing in recent years with the introduction of triphasic pills, while use of intrauterine contraception seems to be declining. Other conventional methods, such as barrier (diaphragm and condom) and 'natural' methods, had a low incidence in the sample studied. The reasons for these behaviors are analyzed and the relative trends discussed.
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Although contraceptive practice has increased substantially in Korea as a result of a strong national family planning program, surveys indicate the existence of an additional unmet demand. A number of obstacles tend to limit availability of family planning services and supplies. The effects of total availability are being tested in a three-year experiment in household contraceptive distribution, for which an exploratory study was carried out in 1975 in Euiryong gun. Three distribution systems were tried in three areas of Euiryong, each enlisting local women to canvass and distribute pills and condoms (and refer those desiring IUDs or sterilization to physician). Results of the preliminary test showed that household distribution was culturally acceptable and administratively feasible and that it did increase contraceptive use. Cost-effectiveness was considered to be within the range of the national program. The most successful of the three distribution systems is being applied in the main study, begun late in 1976 in Cheju province.
"The rationing of births in China after the 1979 announcement of the 'one child family policy' has been held responsible for the rapid decrease in Chinese fertility, whereas other observers have noted that parallel fertility declines occurred with voluntary behavior in other East and Southeast Asian countries. This paper assesses the joint contribution of local family planning and health programs, individual characteristics of women, and the development of their communities, as explanatory variables for Chinese fertility in rural areas of three provinces in 1985. Given the explicit quantitative reproductive goals of the government, an ordered Probit model for cumulative fertility is estimated for women age 15-34 and 35-49."
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Due to biomedical, behavioral and societal factors, reproductive tract infections are widespread in the Third World. Without early diagnosis and accurate therapy, their complications severely compromise women's health, fertility and productivity; infant health and survival; and the effectiveness of family planning programs. Clinicians and public health planners can address these treatable syndromes through research and services in socially acceptable settings including family planning, prenatal and MCH clinics. Specific approaches are discussed.
There are today some 200 women's health centers in the United States providing information and, in many cases, direct health and family planning services to women in a manner responsive to their needs and preferences, and that involves them in the design and provision of services. This approach to delivering services was specifically recommended by the International Conference of Family Planning in the 1980's held in Indonesia in April 1981. in addressing the challenges facing family planning programs in the decade ahead, the conference noted that in many parts of the world, women often have little control over decisions related to their own fertility. Furthermore, low levels of acceptance and use of family planning, which are characteristic of many programs, often reflect a failure to design and provide services in a manner that is responsive to the needs and perceptions of the users. The conference called for measures to improve the status of women, and recommended that women be involved in all aspects of program design, management, policymaking, and provision of services. In this special report, Judith Bruce describes how women-oriented services are designed and provided at one of the women's health centers, The New hampshire Feminist Health Center.
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The education of a mother is strongly and positively correlated with the survival rate of her children. This paper combines household data from the Colombian Census of 1973 and characteristics of the 900 residential areas in Colombia, to test various hypotheses concerning the mechanism by which mother's education and public policies affect child survival and the distribution of health benefits resulting from policy interventions. The hypothesis is advanced that education provides people with skills in acquiring and decoding new information and thus effectively lowers the costs of using more beneficial child health and contraceptive technologies. Since a primary function of health and family planning programs is to disseminate information on these same technologies, the hypothesis is tested that mother's education and these program interventions may substitute for each other in improving child health and reducing family size. The empirical analysis confirms that in urban areas the availability of medical services, family planning activities, transportational infrastructure and climate, in addition to mother's education, are associated with child mortality ratios and fertility within a birth cohort of mothers. The least educated mothers are the most strongly affected, in terms of their reduced fertility and increased child survival rates, by the local urban health programs. The evidence is, thus, consistent with the substitution hypothesis. No effects of program interventions and medical facilities are found on rural populations, though both child mortality ratios and fertility are lower for more educated rural women.
OBJECTIVE: To test three practices introduced to couples for adaptation of a non-permanent modern method of family planning and the role that each partner played during the process. SETTING: Urban and sub-urban areas of Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. METHODS: 'Behavioral trials' was conducted which is a formative research method in which researcher and participants negotiate behavior(s) that the participant agrees to try for a specific amount of time. Interviews were conducted on 72 married couples (144 men and women) living in urban and sub-urban areas of Karachi, Lahore and Quetta. Study participants were either non-users of modern methods of family panning, or using traditional methods. The three behaviors negotiated were: a) Discuss benefits of birth spacing with spouse; b) discuss specific methods of family planning and decide on the most appropriate one and c) initiate use of a modern temporary method of family planning. RESULTS: After the introduction of first practice, of 72 couples 38 reported failure to initiate the discussion with their spouse. Where women initiated the discussion the response from spouse was not as favorable as where men initiated the discussion. After introduction of second practice 28 couples were successful in discussing about selection of a family planning method. Twenty-four couples finally selected and used a method. Traditional users were more likely to adopt a modern method than non-users, especially those with 3-5 children. CONCLUSION: Strategies to cultivate a culture of inter-spousal communication on use of family planning methods should be developed as a component of family planning programs.
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This report compares fertility and family planning intentions of rural Indian women in 1975 with actual outcomes in 1987. Ninety-four of 103 respondents who had fewer children than they wanted in 1975 and had stated definite intentions with respect to future fertility and contraceptive use were reinterviewed in 1987. Overall, women had fewer children than desired and stopped childbearing when they reached or closely approximated their ideal number of sons. Since sons were clearly the determinant of "reproductive success," it is argued that only a significant change in the status of rural women can bring about widespread compliance with the official family planning program's two-child norm.
This report provides the first reliable statistical data on fertility patterns and the family planning program in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Findings are from the 1988 Demographic and Health Survey of Vietnam and the 1989 census survey. The data show that the total fertility rate has declined from over 6 children per woman in the early 1970s to under 4 in the later 1980s. Contraceptive prevalence for modern methods is estimated at 37 percent among married women of reproductive age in 1988. The average duration of breastfeeding is over 14 months; marriage is relatively late. The IUD is the most common contraceptive method and abortion is widespread. The major factors likely to influence fertility and family planning in the future are the government's population policy, improved access to modern methods of contraception, and the institution of new economic policies that are currently under way in Vietnam.
The impact that family planning has on social welfare was quantified for each federal entity. Considering fertility the most important variable of the population growth rate during the last years, and the demographic dynamic in the future, a package of software was adapted to elaborate population projections up to the year 2010, in order to show, through basic indicators, the effect that in a middle-term of a successful or deficient family planning program, in terms of future needs of health, education, housing and job employment. Finally, programmatic and operative strategies were expounded to reinforce family planning activities at local health systems and dispersed rural communities.