All available data for thirteen Pacific Island nations are used in a comparative analysis of suicide levels and characteristics. Age, sex and method of suicide are examined in detail. Global comparison shows Pacific rates are amongst the highest reported. Female youth rates exceed male rates in Western Samoa and amongst Fiji Indians. Method of suicide (paraquat ingestion) is instrumental in determining high rates in Western Samoa, especially in females. The broad causal theme is societal transition. Commonality and diversity are discussed.

Although the recent Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) show that two-thirds of marriages in Pakistan are consanguineous, the sociocultural determinants of such marriages remain largely unexplored. This paper examines the relative importance of the three commonly perceived reasons for such marriages: religious, economic and cultural. The analysis is based on qualitative data collected in 1995 from multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan. Results show that consanguineous marriages are preferred across all ethnic and religious groups to a varying degree, and that parents continue to be the prime decision-makers for marriages of both sons and daughters. The major reasons for a preference for consanguineous marriages are sociocultural rather than any perceived economic benefits, either in the form of consolidation of family property or smaller and less expensive dowries. Among Muslims, following religious traditions is the least commonly cited reason for such marriages. Despite the reported sociocultural advantages of consanguineous marriages, such unions are perceived to be exploitative as they perpetuate the existing power structures within the family.

It has been suggested that altering the pace of reproduction would improve the health of women and children. For formulating intervention policies, it is important to know whether on its own such a strategy is likely to lead to risk reduction. This paper analyses mortality risk in sibships to explore the relationship between family formation factors and other household characteristics that identify women whose families are at higher risk. The analysis allows for the fact that reproductive behaviour may be modified by the family's prior experience of child death, using simultaneous equations methods to purge the model of the ‘feedback’ effects of death on the endogenous variable, childbearing pace. The strong relationship between reproductive pace and average risk in a family appears to be due to the association of both with other differences between households. Other aspects of family formation patterns are good indicators of which families are likely to experience excess risks to their children. These factors are associated with maternal education, but measure characteristics of the family or mother that educational attainment does not fully capture. They indicate that high-risk mothers are likely to have less control over many aspects of their lives. The pace of family building does not lead to excess average family risk, but may result, at least in part, from the concentration of risk in families with other characteristic patterns of family formation and few resources. The paper argues for a broader conception of household influences on child health and the health-related behaviour of parents.

A study of the abnormal sex ratio at birth in China reveals that it is not an entirely new phenomenon that emerged since the 1980s, but is simply more visible at present. Deliberate intervention to determine the sex of children has existed in the past few decades, at least in certain groups. Apart from modern medical methods, traditional Chinese medical practice is shown to be highly accurate in identifying the sex of a fetus. This may lead to sex-selective abortion and an abnormal sex ratio at birth. The possible causes of the abnormal sex ratio at birth include not only the real imbalance due to the disturbance of social factors, but also a spurious one attributable to the under-counting of female births. The real magnitude of the imbalance has been exaggerated by statistical error. The phenomenon is a complicated one reflecting the comprehensive socioeconomic setting. Among these factors, the stage of the fertility transition is one of the most decisive.

The effect of nutrition on fertility and its contribution thereby to population dynamics are assessed in three social groups (elite, tradesmen and subsistence) in a marginal, pre-industrial population in northern England. This community was particularly susceptible to fluctuations in the price of grains, which formed their basic foodstuff. The subsistence class, who formed the largest part of the population, had low levels of fertility and small family sizes, but women from all social groups had a characteristic and marked subfecundity in the early part of their reproductive lives. The health and nutrition of the mother during pregnancy was the most important factor in determining fertility and neonatal mortality. Inadequate nutrition had many subtle effects on reproduction which interacted to produce a complex web of events. A population boom occurred during the second half of the 18th century; fertility did not change but there was a marked improvement in infant mortality and it is suggested that the steadily improving nutritional standards of the population, particularly during crucial periods in pregnancy (i.e. the last trimester), probably made the biggest contribution to the improvement in infant mortality and so was probably the major factor in triggering the boom.

The strength of influence upon statural variation of: (1) the degree of urbanization of the locality of habitat, (2) family size, (3) paternal and (4) maternal educational status was analysed in three generations of 19-year-old Polish conscripts, examined in 1965, 1986 and 1995. Each of the above factors of an individual's social situation was described by a 4-level scale. Each factor was found to exert a highly significant residual effect on stature throughout the three decades considered, even after the effects of other correlated factors were partialled out by three-factor ANOVA. However, the stratifying force of each factor, as expressed by the dispersal of the level-specific main effects around the national mean, has been changing over time. For example, the growth-stunting effect of the condition of coming from a large sibship was dramatic in the 1965 cohort and considerably attenuated in 1986 but ceased to diminish thereafter. The growth-enhancing effect of the condition of being a large-city dweller, initially marked, has almost disappeared; but the growth-stunting effect of the condition of being a rural dweller has remained equally strong across all cohorts. These and other shifts in the relative importance of the social factors, as presumed determinants of family living standards, are described and some explanations attempted.

In-depth interviews were conducted with married Asian women from Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, to investigate patterns of contraceptive use and influences on contraceptive decision making. The results show two distinctively different contraceptive ‘lifecycles’. Non-professional women typically have little knowledge about contraception until after their marriage or first birth. Their patterns of contraceptive behaviour show low levels of contraceptive use until after their first birth, when condom use is most prevalent. Non-professional women are influenced by their extended family, religion and cultural expectations on their fertility and family planning decisions. Professional women show an entirely different pattern of contraceptive behaviour. They are more likely to have knowledge about contraception before marriage, use some method of contraception throughout their childbearing years (typically the pill) and cite personal, practical or economic considerations in their fertility decisions rather than religious, cultural or extended family influences.

The purpose of this study was to validate the self-reported body height and weight of adult Japanese women. The subjects were women, aged 20–42 years, who participated in a survey on eating disorders in women in 1995. Physically measured height and weight data were obtained for 368 (89·8%) of the 469 women who self-reported their height and weight. The report-based heights and weights were compared with the measured values. The correlation coefficients for height and weight were 0·990 and 0·963 (p<0·0001), respectively. Mean reported height was 0·1 cm shorter and mean reported weight 0·2 kg lighter than the measured values. Shorter women tended to report a taller height than their actual height, and heavier women to report a lower weight than their actual weight. Despite these limitations, the self-reported heights and weights of adult Japanese women were precise and accurate, and their use in epidemiological surveys is considered acceptable.