Journal of Biosocial Science最新文献

Governments in sub-Saharan African countries aim to increase married women's household decision-making autonomy as it remains a critical determinant of desirable health behaviours such as healthcare utilisation, antenatal care visits, and safer sex negotiation. However, very few studies explore how household structure (i.e., monogamous or polygamous) is associated with married women's household decision-making autonomy. Our paper seeks to address this gap. Using the 2019-20 Mauritania Demographic and Health Survey, a nationally representative dataset, and applying logistic regression analysis, we explore how married women's household structure is associated with their household decision-making autonomy. We find that 9% of married women are in polygamous marriages, while 63% and 65% are involved in decision-making about their health and large household purchases, respectively. Additionally, 76% and 56% are involved in decision-making about visiting family or relatives and household expenditures. After accounting for socio-economic and demographic factors, we find that compared to women from monogamous households, those from polygamous households are less likely to participate in decision-making about their health (OR=0.65, p < 0.001), making large household purchases (OR=0.65, p < 0.001), visiting family or relatives (OR=0.72, p < 0.001), and household expenditure (OR=0.58, p < 0.001). Based on our findings, we recommend the urgent need to review and re-evaluate policies and approaches seeking to promote gender equality and women's autonomy in Mauritania. Specifically, it may be critical for intervention programmes to work around reducing power imbalances in polygamous household structures that continue to impact married women's household decision-making autonomy adversely. Such interventions should centre married women's socio-economic status as a central component of their empowerment strategies in Mauritania.

Anaemia severely impacts physical and mental abilities, raises health risks, and diminishes the quality of life and work capacity. It is a leading cause of adverse pregnancy outcomes and maternal mortality, especially in developing nations like India, where recent data on anaemia from National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-4) (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21) indicate a tremendous rise. Anaemia is a marker of poor nutrition and health, and socio-economic factors such as gender norms, race, income, and living conditions influence its impact. As a result, there are disparities in how anaemia affects different segments of society. However, existing research on health inequity and anaemia often employs a single-axis analytical framework of social power. These studies operate under the assumption that gender, economic class, ethnicity, and caste are inherently distinct and mutually exclusive categories and fail to provide a comprehensive understanding of anaemia prevalence. Therefore, the study has adopted the theoretical framework of intersectionality and analysed the NFHS-5 (2019-21) data using bivariate cross-tabulations and binary logistic regression models to understand how gender, class, caste, and place of residence are associated with the prevalence of anaemia. The results suggest that the women of Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) share a disproportionate burden of anaemia. This study confirms that economic class and gender, geographical location, level of education, and body mass index significantly determine the prevalence of anaemia. The ST and SC women who are economically marginalised and reside in rural areas with high levels of poverty, exclusion, and poor nutritional status have a higher prevalence of anaemia than other population groups. Thus, the study suggests that intersections of multiple factors such as caste, class, gender, and place of residence significantly determine 'who is anaemic in India'.

While the practice of polygyny is common in Ghana, little is known about its impact on the use of reproductive health services. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between polygynous marriage and the utilisation of skilled antenatal care (ANC), assisted skilled birth, and modern contraceptive services among married women in Ghana. Secondary data from the 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey were used for this study. The study included a weighted sample of 9,098 married women aged 15-49 years. We used multivariable logistic regression models to assess the association between polygyny and each outcome variables. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the dose-response relationship between polygyny and each outcome variable. The prevalence of eight or more ANC contacts, assisted skilled births, and use of modern contraception were 47.0%, 81.4%, and 25.4%, respectively. The prevalence of women in polygynous marriages was 15.3%. Compared to monogynous marriage, polygynous marriage was associated with 19% lower odds of having eight plus ANC contacts (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.81, 95% CI: 0.69, 0.96), 25% lower odds of having assisted skilled birth (aOR 0.75, 95% CI: 0.63, 0.89), and 19% lower odds of modern contraceptive utilisation (aOR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.66, 0.99). Interventions on reproductive health may need to prioritise women in polygynous marriages in order to improve the utilisation of skilled ANC, assisted skilled birth, and modern contraceptive services.

Investing in the sexual and reproductive health of young adults can directly and indirectly contribute to accelerated economic growth. Looking beyond individual determinants of sexual behaviours and focusing on cultural factors such as ethnic affiliation are crucial for interventions and programme planning, particularly in a context like Nigeria. Using a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods design, this article explores the associations between ethnic affiliations and protective sexual behaviours of young adults in Nigeria. The quantitative data was derived from a representative sample of 1,393 male and female youth aged 16-24 years in three states purposively selected from three regions in Nigeria, while qualitative data was based on 18 focus groups and 36 in-depth interviews. The quantitative data was analysed using frequency distributions and regressions, while content analysis was employed to analyse qualitative data. Descriptive results showed that abstinence was higher for Hausa (80%) young adults compared with Yoruba (72%) and Igbo (68%) young adults. Condom use was lowest for Hausa (56%) young adults compared with Igbo (80%) and Yoruba (81%) young adults. The effect of education on abstinence differed by ethnicity and living with two parents was associated with a higher likelihood of abstinence among youth in all ethnic groups. Fear of early fatherhood and unplanned pregnancy was a prominent reason for protective sexual behaviour among Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa young adults. The findings from this study show that young adults who engage in protective sexual behaviours may identify different rationales for this behaviour based on their ethnic background. Programme planners interested in promoting and encouraging protective sexual behaviours should recognize these multiple reasons across different ethnic affiliations to scale up and sustain existing interventions.

This study aims to measure inequalities in the distribution of functional difficulties and their different domains among youth aged 15-29 years in Egypt, according to selected socioeconomic characteristics (e.g. wealth quantiles and education level of the head of the household). The data come from the nationally representative survey, 'Household Observatory Survey', with 10,405 persons aged 15-29 years representing the study sample population. The survey identifies individuals with disabilities using the Washington Group Short questions. Inequalities in disability distribution have been measured by the concentration index (CI). The results indicate that functional difficulties have been concentrated among the poorest youth and households headed by illiterate persons. Rural areas have the highest concentration of disabilities among youth, with the lowest wealth and the lowest educational level of the head of the household. The CI suggests the existence of socioeconomic inequalities in all functional difficulties except for seeing difficulties. Understanding which factors more substantially contribute to inequalities is critical for advancing policies devoted to enhancing the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

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.

Despite the global decrease over the last two decades, stunting, also called 'chronic malnutrition', remains a public health issue affecting almost 150 million children under the age of 5 years globally. Defined by height-for-age, stunting is the consequence of poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Programmes and policies target undernutrition globally, and humanitarian and development actors invest great efforts to prevent stunting. This study uses multivariate analysis to examine the impact of financial assistance on the reduction of stunting in a refugee context, focusing on Syrian refugee children under the age of 5 years in Türkiye. Using a unique dataset, the 2018 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey Syrian Migrant Sample (2018 TDHS-SR), the findings indicate that financial assistance significantly reduces the incidence of stunting among refugee children under the control of economic, mother and children, environmental, health-related and nutritional and breastfeeding characteristics. However, having household members generate income is found to be another stronger predictor to reduce stunting. The paper also argues that the nutritional well-being of refugee children might improve if forced migration occurs towards a stable host country/region. In addition, adaptation over time also seems to have a positive influence.

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.

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.