Back to home pageAustralia (Canberra) HEALTH TRANSITION REVIEW OCTOBER 1992 - VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2 93.57.01 - English - Akile GÜRSOY-TEZCAN, Marmara University, Faculty of Social and Administrative Sciences, Göztepe, Istanbul (Turkey) Infant Mortality: A Turkish Puzzle? (p. 131-149) In this paper the author examines the problem of high infant and child mortality in Turkey. In view of his research results, he argues for a re-evaluation of the theoretical paradigm that views childhood issues primarily in relation to mothers rather than within the dynamics of a broader cultural context. The present emphasis on mothers as a primary key to the problem reflects an extensive and implicit conceptualization of 'motherhood' that has penetrated scientific discourse and methodology. The research results presented here show that in our Istanbul sample most of the factors related to high child mortality are household and cultural conditions encircling the mother, and that only a few of the factors are direct attributes of the mother herself. These results have significant implications for research and policy on child health. (TURKEY, INFANT MORTALITY, YOUTH MORTALITY) 93.57.02 - English - Kempe Ronald HOPE, Sr., United Nations, Multilateral Fund, 1800 McGill College Avenue, Montreal, Quebec H3A 3J6 (Canada) Child Survival and Health Care among Low-income African-American Families in the United States (p. 151-163) This paper provides an assessment and analysis of the increasing rates of mortality among the children of low-income African- American families in the United States and the intensifying problem of improper health care that seems to have given rise to it. The paper first documents the nature and determinants of the problem and then addresses the issue of policy prescriptions for eradicating the dilemma. The primary problem underlying the health-care access of low-income African-Americans is that there is neither a system of universal entitlement that ties their health care in with the rest of the population nor an explicit and comprehensive strategy for care outside the dominant private system. (UNITED STATES, INFANT MORTALITY, FAMILY, BLACKS, HEALTH POLICY) 93.57.03 - English - Nigel CROOK, Department of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG (U.K.), and C.R. MALAKER, Population Studies Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 Barrackpore Trunk Road, Calcutta 700 035 (India) Child Mortality in New Industrial Localities and Opportunities for Change: A Survey in an Indian Steel Town (p. 165-176) As Asia becomes increasingly urbanized the effect of new industrial development on child mortality becomes of increasing interest. In India, considerable investment has been made in the social infrastructure of industrial new towns. This survey of Durgapur steel town in West Bengal shows that although the average level of child mortality in the working class population is favourable in comparison with other Indian cities, considerable differentials, that can be related to social, economic and environmental differences within the population, have arisen since the creation of the city in the late 1950s. The paper argues that the undertaking of selective sanitary interventions to improve access to drinking water (in particular) would be administratively feasible in these industrial new towns, of immediate impact, and indeed necessary if the differentials in mortality are to be eliminated. (INDIA, YOUTH MORTALITY, HEALTH POLICY, DRINKING WATER) 93.57.04 - English - Jean-Louis RALLU, School of Social and Economic Development (SSED), The University of the South Pacific, PO Box l168, Suva (Fiji) From Decline to Recovery: The Marquesan Population 1886-1945 (p. 177-194) Population decline in the South Pacific is poorly documented. Civil-registration data from the Marquesas (French Polynesia) from 1882 to 1945 are here used to calculate most of the usual demographic indices. Deterioration of natural equilibria following the arrival of Europeans in the islands and introduction of new diseases in a non-immune population caused a steady decline in the population. Beside catastrophic epidemics such as smallpox, mortality was high mainly because of introduced respiratory diseases. The very high mortality, ranging from 45 per 1,000 to 70 per 1,000 at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, combined with low fertility due to the high proportion of sterile women (infected by venereal diseases), caused an annual decline of 2 to 3% up to 1924. The arrival of a physician, introduction of basic sanitation and care of venereal diseases in Tahiti, whence most of the visitors to the Marquesas came, were followed by a sudden drop in mortality, rising fertility, and population increase. The depopulation phase lasted until the 1920s although the population generally stabilized elsewhere in Polynesia around the turn of the century. (POLYNESIA, POPULATION MOVEMENT) 93.57.05 - English - Alexandra A. BREWIS, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1 (New Zealand) Sexually-transmitted Disease Risk in a Micronesian Atoll Population (p. 195-213) The potential health threat of AIDS to the native island-based populations in the Pacific is now widely appreciated by those working in the public-health sector throughout the region. Although several countries in the region are yet to identify any cases of AIDS or HIV seropositivity, there is reason to suspect that heterosexual contact may emerge as a predominant mode of spread of HIV infection into native Pacific island populations. Sexual networks and their relationship to potentially 'risky behaviours' are described for a single native Micronesian atoll community on the basis of ethnographic observation and interviewing. This description is combined with the investigation of historic-demographic dimensions of the epidemiology of sexually-transmitted diseases in the same population to draw some conclusions about the opportunities for HIV transmission and acquisition among the sexually-active portions of this community. Although sexually-transmitted diseases have not had an appreciable epidemiological or demographic impact on the population in the past, the sexual networks within the community and beyond provide ample opportunity for the introduction and spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and its sequel AIDS. (MICRONESIA, COMMUNICABLE DISEASES)
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