p. 95 Wishik (1973) should read Wishik & Chen (1973)

p. 103 Wishik S.E. (1973) should read Wishik, S.E. & Chen, K-H. (1973)

At a time when abortion was not readily available, among married women over half of unintended pregnancies occurred with no use or discontinued use of contraception. Many of these contraceptive drifters had prior experience with effective contraception. Contraceptive drifting was more common for low parity births. Different characteristics differentiated drifters from contraception failures in low- (1–2) and high- (3+) parity women. Among low-parity women, more drifting was found where the husband was enthusiastic about having the child, the woman's education or occupation was low, the husband's occupation was craftsman or operative, his education was low or his income was high. Among high-parity women, drifting was more common for white mothers, those with a previous marriage or a child by another father, or for mothers or fathers with low education. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.

In this survey of attitudes towards permanent contraceptive methods, four groups were studied: (A) men having undergone a vasectomy 12 months previously (n = 61); (B) men currently attending for vasectomy (n = 58); (C) female partners of men currently undergoing vasectomy (n = 60); and (D) women undergoing sterilization by tubal ligation (n = 52). All patients completed a questionnaire which included questions on the reasons for selecting their chosen method, and attitudes towards permanent methods and hypothetical pills and injectable contraceptives for men. Results showed that contraception was generally regarded as a mutual responsibility. This attitude was more pronounced in the vasectomy groups than among the sterilization women. Generally favourable reactions were elicited with respect to vasectomy, although substantial proportions expressed a preference for alternative methods (40%). Women undergoing sterilization exhibited predominantly negative attitudes towards this procedure. The implications of these findings, in terms of enhancing the acceptability of new male methods and improving subsequent adjustment to currently available permanent methods, are discussed.

Women who bear a child in their teens differ in their childhood, adolescent and adult experiences from their peers who delay childbearing until later ages. Within the group of teenage mothers the background characteristics associated with and the consequences of pregnancy status at first birth are discussed.

Consultant gynaecologists in the Wessex Regional Health Authority were interviewed about their abortion work. Wide variations in attitudes and practice are evident. Whilst the consultants broadly refer to the same criteria in deciding whether to perform an abortion or not, the assessment they make of the relevance of these criteria is very much an individual matter.

The paper examines the attitudes towards legalization of abortion among a cross-section of 1130 currently married, fecund women of metropolitan Dacca. Abortion is a taboo subject and it is punishable under law in Bangladesh. The respondents in this study do not seem to be very hostile toward legalization of abortion but, on the contrary, favour this at least under certain situations. Only 11% of respondents are strongly opposed to legalization of abortion, but as many as 50% of the respondents endorse abortion in at least three different situations: (i) if the life of the mother is endangered: (ii) if the baby is expected to be born defective: (iii) if a woman is raped. This finding indicates that at least among a group of educated urban women there prevails a more favourable attitude towards abortion than that permitted by law. Socioeconomic factors, particularly female education, are found to be the strongest correlates of attitude towards abortion.

The study examines the sex imbalance at the marriageable ages according to ethnic group and religion, utilizing data obtained from the complete tabulations of the 1971 Census of Population in Sri Lanka. The active enforcement of Indian repatriation, commencing in 1971, played a major role in increasing net migration rates to significant levels in 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975 and thereby reducing the island's growth rate to 1·45% and 1·71% in 1974 and 1975. These out-movements were further increased by the exodus of Sri Lanka citizens which began in 1972 and continued in the years 1973–75, presumably dominated by males aged 20–44 years. This emigration of Sri Lanka citizens is expected to continue and will aggravate further the difficulties of contracting a marriage within each ethnic and religious group. Possible demographic consequences are suggested.

Patterns of sleep are described among the adult inhabitants of a group of Oxfordshire villages as ascertained through a sleep questionnaire. Sleep duration during the main sleep period on working days, and perceived sleep quality, are then analysed in terms of associations with aspects of life style. In both men and women some 20 out of 50 responses to life style questions show significant associations with sleep duration but most of these associations differ by sex. Some show corresponding associations with sleep quality, but others, mainly related to what people actually do, rather than what they say about how they feel, do not. A principal components analysis of those life style variables which show significant associations with sleep duration, and the adjustment of individual values by these factors for entry into a multiple regression, identifies five factors in each sex which are significantly related to sleep duration. Together they account for 9·9% of the observed male variance and 12·4% of the female variance.

The allele frequency data of artificial populations were examined by several methods which test whether various configurations of allele frequencies are the result of drift or selection. Although no genotypic selective differences were included in these populations the methods indicated that selection was operating in some instances; hence the models are not reliable. Distinguishing between the actions of drift and selection would be facilitated if data for many loci were included, so that a notion of the variance of the genetic variation measure could be obtained.

The pattern of human disease is not immutable. Some diseases change their expression; new diseases arise, and some die out. Man's diseases have influenced his history and evolution and, conversely, his biological and cultural evolution have affected his pathology, most powerfully through his alteration of the environment and his changing demographic patterns. This paper briefly reviews the history of those diseases which are, or have been, the leading causes of human morbidity and mortality and draws attention to a curious contrast between the Old and New Worlds.

Risk factors associated with childhood obesity were examined in children of the elementary school of Aosta (northern Italy). In data from 2044 families none of the variables investigated (sibship size, mother's age, birth rank, the ‘temporarily-one-child syndrome’, and number of living parents) was found to have a significant association with the frequency of obesity, though weak associations for family size and the number of living parents may exist. The only significant difference found was between children of parents from northern Italy and those from southern Italy (recent immigrants).