Selected determinants of overall infant mortality in Vietnam were examined using data from the 1988 Vietnam Demographic and Health Survey, and factors underlying neonatal and post-neonatal mortality were also compared. Effects of community development characteristics, including health care, were studied by logistic regression analysis in a subsample of rural children from the 1990 Vietnam Accessibility of Contraceptives Survey.

Infant neonatal and post-neonatal mortality rates showed comparable distributions by birth order, maternal age, pregnancy intervals, mother's education and urban–rural residence. Rates were highest among first order births, births after an interval of less than 12 months, births to illiterate mothers and to those aged under 21 or over 35 years of age. Logistic regression analysis showed that the most significant predictor of infant mortality was residence in a province where overall infant mortality was over 40 per 1000 live births. In the rural subsample, availability of public transport was the most persistent community development predictor of infant mortality. Reasons for the low infant mortality rates in Vietnam compared to countries with similar levels of economic development are discussed.

Data from the 4172 women aged 15–49 interviewed in the 1988 Vietnamese Demographic and Health Survey were used to examine age at marriage, marriage to first birth intervals and age at first birth. Differences between urban and rural areas, northern and southern provinces and by education of the women were analysed.

The majority of the women had their first birth before age 20, but women with secondary education had a significantly higher age at first birth than those with little or no education, and women from the north had a significantly higher age at first birth than women from the south. Rural women and those with little or no education married at significantly younger ages than urban women and those with secondary education; these education effects were confirmed in a rural subsample of women. Women from rural areas and from the north had significantly shorter marriage to first birth intervals than urban women and those from the south, but there were no significant effects related to education.

Differentials in child survival in Bangladesh have been examined using a number of socioeconomic and environmental factors on data from the 1989 Bangladesh Fertility Survey. Multivariate analysis reveals that both wife's and husband's education and household electricity show a significant positive association with child survival. The respondent's working status exerts a significant negative influence. Wife's education has a greater influence on child survival in Bangladesh than that of husband's education.

The effect of moderate son preference on family size is analysed using data from the 1982 Sri Lanka Contraceptive Prevalence Survey whose respondents were followed-up in the 1985 Sri Lanka Contraceptive Survey. Reported reproductive intentions on desire for additional children were not always reflected in overall contraceptive use. Complicating factors were the use of modern and traditional methods and the role of induced abortion. Longitudinal observations of the 1982–85 period relating women's individual reproductive behaviour to their intentions show no consistent behavioural difference between those with and without sons. However, at any given parity, the proportion reporting at least one additional child born during the intersurvey period was higher among those women who intended to have at least one additional child than among those who wanted to stop childbearing. This analysis suggests that son preference finds expression more through reproductive intentions than through actual fertility behaviour in the follow-up period.

Measures of partner availability introduced by Goldman, Westoff & Hammerslough (1984) and by Veevers (1988) are described and a new measure of partner availability, the Iterated Availability Ratio, is introduced. The three measures are applied to 1981 Census data for England and Wales and their abilities to predict regional variations in age-specific marriage rates are compared.

This study examined the effects of biosocial variables on changes in nutritional status of rural Bangladeshi children, aged less than 2 years, pre- and post-1987 monsoon flooding. Nutritional status was measured by weight for age: variables included were age, sex, sickness during 2 weeks preceding the survey, intake of vitamin A capsules, socioeconomic status of household, and mother's education. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed an adverse effect of flood on nutrition and the effect was dependent on sex of child and intake of vitamin A. After the flood the proportion of severely malnourished children was significantly greater among those who had not taken vitamin A. For boys the proportion with severe malnutrition increased after the flood and the increase was greater than for girls; however, boys always had a lower risk of severe malnutrition than girls.

A prospective study of 3080 Filipino mothers and non-twin births in 33 communities is used to study the determinants of mortality in week 1 postpartum. The results show significant nonlinear birth weight effects and the importance of environmental contamination, particularly for infants born by traditional methods at home, and several other intermediate and underlying determinants of perinatal mortality. The pathways through which important sociodemographic factors affect perinatal mortality are also presented.

This paper investigates the behavioural aspects of health care use for Jordanian children from birth to 3 years using data from a national survey. Statistical analysis indicate differences in the determinants of the use of paediatric care and immunisation: whereas immunisation coverage was already good in 1983 (and has improved subsequently), paediatric care is used for fewer than half of the children under 1 year of age. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the population, especially female education, and maternal health care use, are important determinants of these patterns of child health care. The absence of differences in paediatric care and immunisation by sex of the child are discussed.

In a recent analysis, Illsley, Le Grand & Mullings argued that, over the years 1931–87, regional inequalities in mortality in Britain effectively disappeared for most age groups. The present study reanalyses their data, breaking regional life tables down into their two major components, the level of survivorship, and the shape of the mortality curve. It is shown that whereas there has been a consistent decline in regional inequalities in the level of mortality, there has not been a comparable convergence in the shape of the mortality curves. These shape differences, implaying premature adult mortality, are now the major source of variation among the regions.

Chinese-American and Anglo-American school children were compared on a nonverbal test of intelligence (Raven's Progressive Matrices) and on twelve chronometric variables which measure the speed with which basic information processes (e.g. stimulus apprehension, decision, and discrimination) can be carried out. All of these tasks are correlated with psychometric intelligence. The two groups differed significantly on most of the variables, but the differences appear to be multidimensional and are not simply due to a group difference in psychometric intelligence, equivalent to about 5 IQ points in favour of the Chinese-Americans. The results are compared with those of Lynn and his colleagues on British, Japanese, and Hong Kong children, and both consistencies and inconsistencies are found.

Data from a study of teenage sexual activity among secondary school girls show the need for a sex education policy as a first step in controlling teenage fertility in Zambia. A large proportion of teenage females enter into close relationships with males at young ages and a high proportion of young females have engaged in sexual intercourse. Most of these sexually active females do not use family planning methods even though a large proportion of them have heard of modern methods. The teenagers receive very little sex education from their parents and a modern institutional sex education programme is needed.