Journal of Biosocial Science最新文献

Worldwide, more than 130 million infants are born each year and a considerable number of 13.5 million of these children have inbred parents. The present study aimed to investigate the association between parents' consanguinity and chronic illness among their children and grandchildren in India. The nationally representative data, Longitudinal Aging Study in India, 2017-2018, Wave 1 was used for the present study. Bivariate analysis, a probit model, and propensity score estimation were employed to conduct the study. The study observed the highest prevalence of consanguinity marriage in the state of Andhra Pradesh (28%) and the lowest in Kerala (5%) among the south Indian States. People who lived in rural areas, belonged to the richer wealth quintile and Hindu religion were the significant predictors of consanguinity marriage in India. For individuals who were in consanguineous marriages, there was 0.85%, 0.84%, 1.57% 0.43%, 0.34%, and 0.14% chances of their children and grandchildren developing psychotic disorders, heart disease, hypertension stroke, cancer, and diabetes, respectively. Moreover, around 4.55% of the individuals have a history of birth defects or congenital disorders. To address the risk of complicated illnesses due to the consanguinity of marriage, medical, genetic, and social counselling services are required.

Limited evidence exists about the contraception uptake in indigenous tribal groups of the north-eastern region of India. This study based on the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) IV (2015-2016) reports aimed to describe the pattern and factors associated with contraceptive non-use in the tribal women of the north-eastern part of India. The study was a cross-sectional analytical study based on secondary analysis of NFHS-IV data. All women in the age group of 15-49 years from the north-eastern part of India were included. Data were extracted and analysed using modified STATA-14 software. The association of socio-demographic and economic characteristics with contraceptive non-use was assessed using logistic regression. The inter-group differences of population characteristics for non-use contraceptives were assessed by modified Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique using 'Fairlie decomposition'. A total of 65,941 women were included, of whom 34,936 (52.9%) were tribal women. The proportion of contraceptive non-use was higher in tribal women. Tribal women with age at marriage above 30 years, Christian community, and women from Assam and Manipur state had higher odds of contraceptive non-use. The decomposition analysis showed that geographical variations, parity, and Christian religion contributed the most to contraceptive use disparity in the population. A huge gap was observed in contraceptive non-use among tribal and non-tribal women in the north-eastern part of India. The healthcare system must involve community representatives in designing context-specific community-based initiatives to increase the uptake of contraceptive use in these remote vulnerable communities.

This paper compares community responses to Ebola and Covid-19 in two regions of southern and eastern Sierra Leone with reference to the theory of institutional dynamics proposed by the anthropologist Mary Douglas. Institutions, Douglas argued, are conveyed by styles of thought, shaped by the ways human communities, through everyday practices, reinforce systems of classification and denotation. Pandemic advice to 'follow the science' proved problematic, since there is no single institution of science, and institutions never stand alone but are bundled with other institutions, reflecting the manifold and intertwined practices of human social life. The paper explores some of the ways a traumatic epidemic of Ebola Virus Disease in Sierra Leone shaped a distinctive local response to this deadly infectious disease in the absence of an effective vaccine. This local approach emphasised social rules based on ideas about sequestration and testing. Communities then proposed to continue this rules-based approach to the pandemic of Covid-19 and showed little initial enthusiasm for vaccination. With Ebola, the adoption of rules resulted in dramatic drops in infection rates. But Covid-19 spreads in different ways, and good results from the application of social rules were much less apparent. The paper shows how communities began to grapple with this new situation. In some cases, vaccine hesitation was overcome by treating the requirement for vaccination as a new form of social discipline. More generally, it is concluded that epidemiologists need to pay specific attention to institutions and institutional dynamics in order to better understand and anticipate public reactions to new disease threats.

Siblings compete for limited parental resources, which can result in a trade-off between family size and child growth outcomes. Welfare incentives may improve parental circumstances in large families by compensating for the additional costs of an extra child and increasing the resources available to a family. The improvements in conditions may influence parents to increase their investment, expecting greater returns from the investment in child survival and development, while in turn increase sibling competition for the investment. This study assessed whether welfare benefits have influenced parental investment trade-offs and competition between siblings among Serbian Roma, a population largely dependent on welfare. Using data from the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 6, this study assessed the associations between maternal investment, child cash benefits, sibship size, and child anthropometry, as an indicator of health, among 1096 Serbian Roma children aged 0 to 59 months. Living in a small family benefited Roma children, while the incentives increased competition between siblings. Maternal investment was negatively associated with incentives, as the improvements brought about were insufficient to influence a change in maternal perceptions about the local setting uncertainty and thus promote an increase in investment.

Menstruation is part of women's normal life, which requires basic hygienic practices. Managing hygiene can be affected by several factors and situations such as natural disasters. Focusing on 'super flooding' in Pakistan's Sindh Province, we pay attention to how this 'natural disaster' has affected hygienic practices of menstrual cycle of women. The study meticulously examines the dynamics of menstrual hygiene management, encompassing the nuanced encounters with feelings of shame and embarrassment among girls and women situated in flood camps, schools, and community shelters. It also intends to highlight women's challenge and embarrassment to participate in the distribution process of essential resources such as pads. The insights garnered from this study hold potential relevance for various stakeholders, including policymakers, healthcare practitioners, and researchers, offering a nuanced comprehension of the intersection of menstrual hygiene, climate change, and well-being of women.

The high prevalence of chronic diseases in urban slums poses increasing challenges to future social and economic development for these disadvantaged areas. Assessing the health status of slum residents offers guidance for formulating appropriate policies and interventions to improve slum residents' health outcomes. This research aimed to identify the social determinants of chronic diseases reporting among slum dwellers in Egypt. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from March to December 2021 in three slum areas in Giza governorate, Egypt, including 3,500 individuals. We constructed an asset index and a welfare index to measure the economic status and living conditions of slum residents, respectively. We used these indices, along with demographic and socio-economic factors, as independent variables in the analysis. We modeled factors associated with health status using a two-level mixed logistic model to control the effects of slum areas and the potential correlation between household members. The study contributed significantly to a better understanding of the context in which slum dwellers live and the interlinkages among poor living conditions, low economic status, and health outcomes. The results showed a high rate of self-reported chronic diseases among adults aged 18 and older, reaching more than 22%, while it did not exceed 2.0% among children in the slum areas. Therefore, measuring the determinants of chronic diseases was limited to adults. The sample size was 2530 adults after excluding 970 children. The prevalence of chronic diseases among adults ranged between 16.3% in Zenin and 22.6% in Bein El Sarayat. Our findings indicated that low socio-economic status was significantly associated with reporting chronic diseases. Future policies should be dedicated to improving living conditions and providing necessary healthcare services for these vulnerable areas.

The fertility gap, which indicates the difference between the planned and actual number of children born, can be explained by the shift in parenthood to older ages and is associated with the non-attainment of one's intended reproductive plans. This paper focuses on the gap in the timing of entry into parenthood, i.e. between the planned and actual age at the birth of the first child. The study is based on data from the Women 2016 survey which re-interviewed women of fertile age from the second wave of the Czech Generations & Gender Survey conducted in 2008. At the population level, the fertility timing gap differs across generations. While for Czech women born between 1966 and 1971 the planned age exceeded the actual observed age by one year, the realisation of fertility occurred two years later than planned for the youngest generation (1983-1990) included in the study. At the individual level, the later-than-planned realisation of fertility was found to be related primarily to partner-related factors.

This study focuses on analysing the heights of 10,953 Korean men aged 20 to 40 years who were measured during the Joseon dynasty, the Japanese colonialisation period, and the contemporary period, the latter including both North and South Korea. This study thus provides rare long-term statistical evidence on how biological living standards have developed over several centuries, encompassing Confucianism, colonialism, capitalism, and communism. Using error bar analysis of heights for each historical sample period, this study confirms that heights rose as economic performance improved. For instance, economically poorer North Koreans were expectedly shorter, by about 6 cm, than their peers living in the developed South. Similarly, premodern inhabitants of present-day South Korea, who produced a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita below the world average, were about 4 cm shorter than contemporary South Koreans, who have a mean income above the world average. Along similar lines, North Koreans, who have a GDP per capita akin to that of the premodern Joseon dynasty, have not improved much in height. On the contrary, mean heights of North Koreans were even slightly below (by about 2.4 cm) heights of Joseon dynasty Koreans. All in all, the heights follow a U-shaped pattern across time, wherein heights were lowest during the colonial era. Heights bounced back to Joseon dynasty levels during the interwar period, a time period where South Korea benefitted from international aid, only to rise again and surpass even premodern levels under South Korea's flourishing market economy.

Unsafe abortion refers to induced abortions performed without trained medical assistance. While previous studies have investigated predictors of unsafe abortion in India, none have addressed these factors with accounting sample selection bias. This study aims to evaluate the contributors to unsafe abortion in India by using the latest National Family Health Survey data conducted during 2019-2021, incorporating the adjustment of sample selection bias. The study included women aged 15 to 49 who had terminated their most recent pregnancy within five years prior to the survey (total weighted sample (N) = 4,810). Descriptive and bivariate statistics and the Heckman Probit model were employed. The prevalence of unsafe abortion in India was 31%. Key predictors of unsafe abortion included women's age, the gender composition of their living children, gestation stage, family planning status, and geographical region. Unsafe abortions were typically performed in the early stages of gestation, often involving self-administered medication. The primary reasons cited were unintended pregnancies and health complications. This study underscores the urgent need for targeted interventions that take into account regional, demographic, and social dynamics influencing abortion practices in India.