Parental age and offspring mortality: Negative effects of reproductive ageing may be counterbalanced by secular increases in longevity.

As parental ages at birth continue to rise, concerns about the effects of fertility postponement on offspring are increasing. Due to reproductive ageing, advanced parental ages have been associated with negative health outcomes for offspring, including decreased longevity. The literature, however, has neglected to examine the potential benefits of being born at a later date.

Fertility and union formation during crisis and societal consolidation in the Western Balkans.

Fertility decline in central and eastern Europe (CEE) since the fall of the communist regimes has been driven by both stopping and postponement of childbearing: two processes that have been related to crisis and economic development, respectively. In the Western Balkans these economic and political contexts followed each other in the form of a biphasic transition. I examine whether this sequence triggered fertility responses like those observed elsewhere.

Multistate modelling extended by behavioural rules: An application to migration.

We propose to extend demographic multistate models by adding a behavioural element: behavioural rules explain intentions and thus transitions. Our framework is inspired by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. We exemplify our approach with a model of migration from Senegal to France.

Homicides In Mexico Reversed Life Expectancy Gains For Men And Slowed Them For Women, 2000-10.

Life expectancy in Mexico increased for more than six decades but then stagnated in the period 2000-10. This decade was characterized by the enactment of a major health care reform-the implementation of the Seguro Popular de Salud (Popular Health Insurance), which was intended to provide coverage to the entire Mexican population-and by an unexpected increase in homicide mortality. We assessed the impact on life expectancy of conditions amenable to medical service-those sensitive to public health policies and changes in behaviors, homicide, and diabetes-by analyzing mortality trends at the state level.

Income inequality and population health: an analysis of panel data for 21 developed countries, 1975-2006.

The relative income-health hypothesis postulates that income distribution is an important determinant of population health, but the age and sex patterns of this association are not well known. We tested the relative income-health hypothesis using panel data collected for 21 developed countries over 30 years. Net of trends in gross domestic product per head and unobserved period and country factors, income inequality measured by the Gini index is positively associated with the mortality of males and females at ages 1-14 and 15-49, and with the mortality of females at ages 65-89 albeit less strongly than for the younger age groups.

Are stepparents always evil? Parental death, remarriage, and child survival in demographically saturated Krummhörn (1720-1859) and expanding Québec (1670-1750).

Parental death precipitates a cascade of events leading to more or less detrimental exposures, from the sudden and dramatic interruption of parental care to cohabitation with stepparents and siblings in a recomposed family. This article compares the effect of early parental loss on child survival in the past in the Krummhörn region of East Frisia (Germany) and among the French Canadian settlers of the Saint Lawrence Valley (Québec, Canada). The Krummhörn region was characterized by a saturated habitat, while the opportunities for establishing a new family were virtually unlimited for the French Canadian settlers.

Forecasting cohort incomplete fertility: A method and an application.

Drawing on insights from previous work on fertility forecasts, we develop a method for forecasting incomplete cohort fertility. Our approach involves two basic steps. First, we use a singular-value-decomposition (SVD) model to establish a relationship between the level and the age pattern of fertility for completed cohorts.

Determinants of individual AIDS risk perception: knowledge, behavioural control and social influence.

In sub-Saharan Africa an almost universal awareness of the serious consequences of AIDS and of the sexual transmission of HIV co-exists together with a reluctance in adopting consequent preventive measures, in the form of protected sexual intercourse. The socio-psychological literature on health-related behaviour emphasises the perception of being at risk of HIV infection as being one of the necessary conditions for preventive behaviour to be adopted. Analysing data from the Kenya Diffusion and Ideational Change (KDIC) Project, this paper investigates the determinants of the reported degree of risk perception of getting infected by HIV.