Women in their reproductive age have tremendous health implications that affect their health and well-being. Anaemia is an indicator of inadequate dietary intake and poor health. Maternal ...malnutrition significantly impacts maternal and child health outcomes, increasing the mother's risk of dying during delivery. High-risk fertility behaviour is a barrier to reducing mother and child mortality. This study aims to examine the level of high-risk fertility behaviour and anaemia among ever-married urban Indian women and also examine the linkages between the both.
Based on the National Family Health Survey's fifth round of data, the study analyzed 44,225 samples of ever-married urban women. Univariate and bivariate analysis and binary logistic regression have been used for the analysis.
Findings suggested that more than half (55%) of the urban women were anaemic, and about one-fourth (24%) of women had any high-risk fertility behaviour. Furthermore, the results suggest that 20% of women were more vulnerable to anaemia due to high-risk fertility behaviour. For the specific category, 19% and 28% of women were more likely to be anaemic due to single and multiple high-risk fertility. However, after controlling for sociodemographic factors, the findings showed a statistically significant link between high-risk fertility behaviour and anaemia. As a result, 16% of the women were more likely to be anaemic due to high-risk fertility behaviour, and 16% and 24% were more likely to be anaemic due to single and multiple high-risk fertility behaviour, respectively.
The findings exposed that maternal high-risk fertility behaviour is a significant factor in raising the chance of anaemia in ever-married urban women of reproductive age in forms of the short birth interval, advanced maternal age, and advanced maternal age & higher order. Policy and choice-based family planning techniques should be employed to minimize the high-risk fertility behaviour among Indian urban women. This might aid in the reduction of the malnutrition status of their children.
One in three women from lower and middle-income countries are subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) in their life span. Prior studies have highlighted a range of adverse ...health impacts of sexual IPV. However, less is known about the link between multiple high-risk fertility behaviours and sexual intimate partner violence. The present study examines the statistical association between multiple high-risk fertility behaviours and sexual intimate partner violence among women in India.
The present study used a nationally representative dataset, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) 2015-16. A total of 23,597 women were included in the study; a subsample of married women of reproductive age who have had at least one child 5 years prior to the survey and who had valid information about sexual IPV. Logistic regression models were employed alongside descriptive statistics.
Approximately 7% of women who are or had been married face sexual IPV. The prevalence of sexual violence was higher among women who had short birth intervals and women who had given birth more than three times (12%). Around 11% of women who had experienced any high-risk fertility behaviours also experienced sexual violence. The unadjusted association suggested that multiple high-risk fertility behaviours were 32% (UORs = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.16-1.50) higher for those women who experienced sexual violence. After adjusting for other sociodemographic variables, except for women's education and wealth quantile, the odds of multiple high-risk fertility behaviours were 16% (AOR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.02-1.34) higher among women who faced sexual violence. The inclusion of women's educational attainment and wealth status in the model made the association between sexual IPV and high-risk fertility behaviours insignificant.
Sexual intimate partner violence is statistically associated with high-risk fertility behaviours among women in India. Programs and strategies designed to improve women's reproductive health should investigate the different dimensions of sexual IPV in India.
Cultural evolutionary theory and human behavioural ecology offer different, but compatible approaches to understanding human demographic behaviour. For much of their 30 history, these approaches have ...been deployed in parallel, with few explicit attempts to integrate them empirically. In this paper, we test hypotheses drawn from both approaches to explore how reproductive behaviour responds to cultural changes among Mosuo agriculturalists of China. Specifically, we focus on how age at last birth (ALB) varies in association with temporal shifts in fertility policies, spatial variation and kinship ecologies. We interpret temporal declines in ALB as plausibly consistent with demographic front-loading of reproduction in light of fertility constraints and later ages at last birth in matrilineal populations relative to patrilineal ones as consistent with greater household cooperation for reproductive purposes in the former. We find little evidence suggesting specific transmission pathways for the spread of norms regulating ALB, but emphasize that the rapid pace of change strongly suggests that learning processes were involved in the general decline in ALB over time. The different predictions of models we employ belie their considerable overlap and the potential for a synthetic approach to generate more refined tests of evolutionary hypotheses of demographic behaviour.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution’.
Evidence suggests that women who give birth in a health facility have lower odds of experiencing pregnancy complications and significantly reduced risk of death from pregnancy-related causes compared ...to women who deliver at home. Establishing the association between high-risk fertility behaviour (HRFB) and health facility delivery is imperative to inform intervention to help reduce maternal mortality. This study examined the association between HRFB and health facility delivery in West Africa.
Data for the study were extracted from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys of twelve countries in West Africa conducted from 2010 to 2020. A total of 69,479 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) were included in the study. Place of delivery was the outcome variable in this study. Three parameters were used as indicators of HRFB based on previous studies. These were age at first birth, short birth interval, and high parity. Multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between HRFB and place of delivery and the results were presented using crude odds ratio (cOR) and adjusted odds ratio (aOR), with their respective 95% confidence interval (CI).
More than half (67.64%) of the women delivered in a health facility. Women who had their first birth after 34 years (aOR = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.46-0.59), those with short birth interval (aOR = 0.91; 95% CI = 0.87-0.96), and those with high parity (aOR = 0.58; 95% CI = 0.55-0.60) were less likely to deliver in a health compared to those whose age at first delivery was 18-34 years, those without short birth interval, and those with no history of high parity, respectively. The odds of health facility delivery was higher among women whose first birth occurred at an age less than 18 years compared to those whose age at first birth was 18-34 years (aOR = 1.17; 95% CI = 1.07-1.28).
HRFB significantly predicts women's likelihood of delivering in a health facility in West Africa. Older age at first birth, shorter birth interval, and high parity lowered women's likelihood of delivering in a health facility. To promote health facility delivery among women in West Africa, it is imperative for policies and interventions on health facility delivery to target at risk sub-populations (i.e., multiparous women, those with shorter birth intervals and women whose first birth occurs at older maternal age). Contraceptive use and awareness creation on the importance of birth spacing should be encouraged among women of reproductive age in West Africa.
Maternal undernutrition plays a critical role in influencing maternal, and child health outcomes and magnifies the risk of death of the mother at the time of delivery. High-risk fertility behaviour ...is an obstacle to tackle maternal and child mortality.
The aim of this study is to understand the level of high-risk fertility behaviour and chronic undernutrition among ever-married women, and also to examine the association between the two.
Data for 190,581 ever-married women (15–49) giving at least one birth during five years prior to the National Family and Health Survey (2015-16) was used. Descriptive statistics and modified Poisson regression were applied to examine the association between high-risk fertility behaviour and chronic undernutrition.
Results show that 24% women were undernourished and 32% were subject to have at least one of the high-risk fertility behaviour. Collectively, 26% and 6% of the women were susceptible to single and multiple high-risk behaviour, respectively. After adjusting sociodemographic backgrounds, results showed a significant association between high-risk fertility behaviour and chronic undernutrition. As such, 5% of women were likely to be undernourished due to high-risk fertility behaviour on the whole, and 4% and 6% of the women, respectively, were likely to be undernourished due to single and multiple high-risk fertility behaviour.
This study finds that maternal high-risk fertility behaviour is an important factor in increasing the likelihood of women to be in a state of chronic undernourishment. Therefore, policy and programme should be implemented to reduce high-risk fertility behaviour among Indian women.
This paper assesses whether fertility theories are still relevant in explaining fertility behaviour in the era of modernization of societies in sub-Saharan Africa over the past six decades. The paper ...particularly focuses on five classical fertility theories: Child Survival Hypothesis, Intergenerational Flow of Wealth, Relative Income Hypothesis, Demand and Supply Framework of Fertility and Value of Children Theory. A rapid scoping review of five classical fertility theories and empirical literature on fertility in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions was done using data sources such as PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, EBSCO, MEDLINE and JSTOR. Three arguments are made. First, the theories of fertility provide some form of understanding of how traditional values and institutions encourage high fertility behaviour in traditional African societies. Second, even though some fertility theories predicted a fall in fertility with the emergence of modernity, empirical research and statistical evidence showed no significant reduction in general fertility levels. Last, empirical studies in the African subregion have acknowledged the presence of such modern institutions and have found that these institutions have influenced the fertility decisions of many within the subregion. What is theoretically expected to occur in terms of fertility reduction is moderate. In effect, traditional values still play a vital role in fertility behaviour and are deeply entrenched in fertility decisions in the subregion.
Fertility has declined in India during the last few decades because of socio-economic development. Women's empowerment has been identified as an important determinant for demographic change. Tribals ...in India have relatively high fertility because of their traditional socio-cultural practices and poor economic condition. This study aims to examine the role of women's empowerment on fertility behaviour by utilising primary data collected from ten tribal dominated districts of Rajasthan. These tribal communities belong to the Bhils, the Meenas and the Saharias. Results reveal that women's empowerment is negatively associated with fertility behaviour. Women's education, employability, participation in decision-making, exposure to media and spousal communication bear significant impact on fertility behaviour. This study may have some implications for future studies and policy makers for regulating fertility.
We aimed to determine the factors that increase the risk of HRFB in Bangladeshi women of reproductive age 15-49 years.
The study utilised the latest Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) ...2017-18 dataset. The Pearson's chi-square test was performed to determine the relationships between the outcome and the independent variables, while multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the potential determinants associated with HRFB.
Overall 67.7% women had HRFB among them 45.6% were at single risk and 22.1% were at multiple high-risks. Women's age (35-49 years: AOR = 6.42 95% CI 3.95-10.42), who were Muslims(AOR = 5.52, 95% CI 2.25-13.52), having normal childbirth (AOR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.22-1.69), having unwanted pregnancy (AOR = 10.79, 95% CI 5.67-18.64) and not using any contraceptive methods (AOR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.24-1.81) were significantly associated with increasing risk of having HRFB. Alternatively, women and their partners' higher education were associated with reducing HRFB.
A significant proportion of Bangladeshi women had high-risk fertility behaviour which is quite alarming. Therefore, the public health policy makers in Bangladesh should emphasis on this issue and design appropriate interventions to reduce the maternal HRFB.
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