scholarly journals How education mitigates the realisation of fertility intentions: Is sub-Saharan Africa different?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Channon ◽  
SARAH HARPER
Keyword(s):  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Fertility Transition ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Fertility Intentions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Individual

The gap between achieved fertility and fertility ideals is notably higher in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) than elsewhere, relating to both under- and overachievement of fertility ideals. We consider the extent to which the relationship between fertility ideals and achieved fertility is mitigated by educational achievement. Further, we consider if the effect of education acts differently in SSA, and thereby hypothesise how increasing levels of education in SSA may decrease fertility.We use 227 Demographic and Health Surveys from 57 countries worldwide to look at population- and individual-level measures of achieving fertility ideals. Population level measures are used to assess whether the correspondence between fertility intentions and achievements differ by level of education. We then look at the individual-level determinants of both under- and overachieving fertility intentions. An average of 40% of women in SSA underachieve their stated fertility intentions compared to 26% in non-SSA countries. Furthermore, the educational gradient of underachievement is different in SSA where higher levels of education are not related to better correspondence between fertility intentions and achievements. We argue that the phenomenon of underachieving fertility ideals (or unrealized fertility) may be of particular importance for the ongoing fertility transition throughout SSA, especially for highly educated groups.

scholarly journals A multilevel analysis of individual and contextual factors associated with the practice of safe disposal of children’s faeces in sub-Saharan Africa

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0254774
Author(s):  
Abdul-Aziz Seidu ◽  
Bright Opoku Ahinkorah ◽  
Kwaku Kissah-Korsah ◽  
Ebenezer Agbaglo ◽  
Louis Kobina Dadzie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Women ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Safe Disposal ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Individual

Background Over the years, sanitation programs over the world have focused more on household sanitation, with limited attention towards the disposal of children’s stools. This lack of attention could be due to the misconception that children’s stools are harmless. The current study examined the individual and contextual predictors of safe disposal of children’s faeces among women in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Methods The study used secondary data involving 128,096 mother-child pairs of under-five children from the current Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in 15 sub-Saharan African countries from 2015 to 2018. Multilevel logistic analysis was used to assess the individual and contextual factors associated with the practice of safe disposal of children’s faeces. We presented the results as adjusted odds ratios (aOR) at a statistical significance of p< 0.05. Results The results show that 58.73% (57.79–59.68) of childbearing women in the 15 countries in SSA included in our study safely disposed off their children’s stools. This varied from as high as 85.90% (84.57–87.14) in Rwanda to as low as 26.38% (24.01–28.91) in Chad. At the individual level, the practice of safe disposal of children’s stools was more likely to occur among children aged 1, compared to those aged 0 [aOR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.68–1.80] and those with diarrhoea compared to those without diarrhoea [aOR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.13–1.21]. Mothers with primary level of education [aOR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.30–1.5], those aged 35–39 [aOR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.12–1.28], and those exposed to radio [aOR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.20–1.27] were more likely to practice safe disposal of children’s stools. Conversely, the odds of safe disposal of children’s stool were lower among mothers who were married [aOR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.69–0.80] and those who belonged to the Traditional African Religion [aOR = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.51–0.80]. With the contextual factors, women with improved water [aOR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.10–1.16] and improved toilet facility [aOR = 5.75 95% CI: 5.55–5.95] had higher odds of safe disposal of children’s stool. On the other hand, mothers who lived in households with 5 or more children [aOR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.86–0.93], those in rural areas [aOR = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.82–0.89], and those who lived in Central Africa [aOR = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.18–0.21] were less likely to practice safe disposal of children’s stools. Conclusion The findings indicate that between- and within-country contextual variations and commonalities need to be acknowledged in designing interventions to enhance safe disposal of children’s faeces. Audio-visual education on safe faecal disposal among rural women and large households can help enhance safe disposal. In light of the strong association between safe stool disposal and improved latrine use in SSA, governments need to develop feasible and cost-effective strategies to increase the number of households with access to improved toilet facilities.

scholarly journals Linguistic Fractionalization and Health Information in Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S20-S25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Flavian Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Oral Rehydration ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Individual Woman ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Linguistic Groups

Abstract This paper explores the relationship between linguistic diversity and the stock of health information in society. Information is measured using individual-level knowledge about the oral rehydration product for treating children with diarrhea. Exploiting an individual woman-level dataset from the Demographic and Health Surveys for 14 sub-Saharan African countries combined with a novel high-resolution dataset on the spatial distribution of linguistic groups at a 1 km × 1 km level, this study shows that linguistic diversity has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the stock of information in society.

scholarly journals Increasing Longevity and the New Demography of Death

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
George W. Leeson
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Global Level ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Life Expectancy At Birth ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Using Data

The world is ageing at both an individual and population levels and population ageing is truly a global phenomenon, the only notable region of exception being sub-Saharan Africa, which remains relatively young in demographic terms. At an individual level, life expectancies at birth have increased at the global level from 47 years in the mid-20th century to around 70 years today and are expected to rise to 76 years by the mid-21st century. At the population level, the proportion of the world’s population aged 60 years and over has increased from 8 percent in the mid-20th century to 12 percent, and by 2050, it is expected to reach 21 percent. In Europe, ageing has continued at a slower rate, but with the emergence of increasing numbers of centenarians. This paper outlines the transition using data from England and Wales from a demography of young death in the mid-19th century to a demography of survival in the 20th century and on to the new demography of old death in the 21st century. The paper provides evidence that it is likely that ages at death will continue to increase, with more and more people reaching extreme old age. At the same time, it is likely that life expectancies at birth will continue to rise, taking life expectancy at birth in England and Wales to 100 years or more by the end of the 21st century. The new 21st century demography of death will lead to annual numbers of deaths far in excess of previous maxima.

scholarly journals Dynamic stagnation: reasons for contraceptive non-use in context of fertility stall

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1458
Author(s):  
Apoorva Jadhav ◽  
Madeleine Short Fabic
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Service Quality ◽  
Fertility Transition ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Level Indicator ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Transitional Countries ◽  
Geographical Access ◽  
Transition Study ◽  
The Individual

Background: While most countries have experienced reductions in the total fertility rate (TFR), there are countries where the fertility transition has not begun and others where the fertility transition has stalled with TFR still well above replacement level.  We use these contexts of “fertility stagnation” to explore reasons behind contraceptive non-use among women who desire to delay or avoid a future birth.  Specifically, we explore whether women’s reasons for not using contraception are stagnant as the population-level indicator, TFR, suggests or are more dynamic. This nuanced understanding can inform programmatic direction for countries especially in need.  Methods: Using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from the two most recent surveys of ten study countries—five countries that have not yet experienced a fertility transition (“pre-transitional”) and five countries that began the fertility transition but stalled (“transitional”)—we explore trends in reasons for non-use.  Results: We find that that reasons for non-use are changing. Specifically, in pre-transition study countries, women are increasingly citing attitudes opposing contraception as reasons for non-use.  In transition countries, women are increasingly citing reasons related to service quality and method side effects. Perceived low fecundability is increasingly cited among both pre-transition and transition study countries. Geographical access and cost are not prominent frequently cited at either time point.  Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for prioritized programmatic attention aimed at: reducing opposition to contraception in pre-transitional countries; improving service quality and addressing issues of side-effects, both experienced and perceived, in transitional countries; and addressing fecundability perceptions in both types of country contexts.  We remind policy makers that even in contexts of fertility stagnation, underlying attitudes, norms, and barriers to contraceptive uptake are shifting.  Lack of change at the population-level can mask important changes at the individual-level that must be accounted for in program development and implementation.

scholarly journals Stalls in Africa’s fertility decline partly result from disruptions in female education

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (8) ◽  
pp. 2891-2896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Endale Kebede ◽  
Anne Goujon ◽  
Wolfgang Lutz
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Population Projections ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Childbearing Age ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Period Effects ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Sub Saharan

Population projections for sub-Saharan Africa have, over the past decade, been corrected upwards because in a number of countries, the earlier declining trends in fertility stalled around 2000. While most studies so far have focused on economic, political, or other factors around 2000, here we suggest that in addition to those period effects, the phenomenon also matched up with disruptions in the cohort trends of educational attainment of women after the postindependence economic and political turmoil. Disruptions likely resulted in a higher proportion of poorly educated women of childbearing age in the late 1990s and early 2000s than there would have been otherwise. In addition to the direct effects of education on lowering fertility, these less-educated female cohorts were also more vulnerable to adverse period effects around 2000. To explore this hypothesis, we combine individual-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys for 18 African countries with and without fertility stalls, thus creating a pooled dataset of more than two million births to some 670,000 women born from 1950 to 1995 by level of education. Statistical analyses indicate clear discontinuities in the improvement of educational attainment of subsequent cohorts of women and stronger sensitivity of less-educated women to period effects. We assess the magnitude of the effect of educational discontinuity through a comparison of the actual trends with counterfactual trends based on the assumption of no education stalls, resulting in up to half a child per woman less in 2010 and 13 million fewer live births over the 1995–2010 period.

scholarly journals Estimating the Fraction of Severe Malaria among Malaria-Positive Children: Analysis of Household Surveys in 19 Malaria-Endemic Countries in Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Taylor ◽  
Sorrel M. L. Namaste ◽  
Joanna Lowell ◽  
Johanna Useem ◽  
Yazoumé Yé
Keyword(s):  
Severe Malaria ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Severe Illness ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Level Analysis

To date, the only robust estimates of severe malaria cases include children who present to the formal healthcare system. It is a challenge to use these data because of varying age ranges of reporting, different diagnosis techniques, surveillance methods, and healthcare utilization. This analysis examined data from 37 Demographic and Health Surveys and Malaria Indicator Surveys across 19 countries in sub-Saharan Africa collected between 2011 and 2018. The outcome of interest is a proxy indicator for severe malaria, defined as a proportion of children aged 6–59 months with at least one self-reported symptom of severe illness including loss of consciousness, rapid breathing, seizures, or severe anemia (hemoglobin < 5 g/dL) among those who were positive for malaria. The study includes a weighted descriptive, country-level analysis and a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression model to assess the determinants of severe malaria. Among children positive for malaria across all surveys, 4.5% (95% CI: 4.1–4.8) had at least one sign or symptom of severe malaria, which was significantly associated with age, residence, wealth, and year of survey fieldwork at a P-value less than 0.05. This analysis presents a novel and an alternative approach of estimating the fraction of severe malaria cases among malaria-positive children younger than 5 years in malaria-endemic countries. Estimating severe malaria cases through population-based surveys allows countries to estimate severe malaria across time and to compare with other countries. Having a population-level estimate of severe malaria cases helps further our understanding of the burden and epidemiology of severe malaria.

Demographic and Socioeconomic Determinants of Female Rural to Urban Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 557-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Brockerhoff ◽  
Hongsook Eu
Keyword(s):  
Child Mortality ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Female Migration ◽  
Rural Urban Migration ◽  
Sub Saharan

Data from eight recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in sub-Saharan Africa are used to assess whether fertility, child mortality and other individual-level characteristics motivate or constrain long-term female migration from rural to urban and other rural areas. Findings indicate that the likelihood of rural-urban and rural-rural migration is lowered in most countries when the woman has had two or more recent births, but not when she has had only one birth. Child mortality experience moderately reduces the risk of migration in most countries. The likelihood of rural-urban migration is greatly increased when the woman has attended school, is not married, is in her twenties, or does not belong to the largest ethnic group.

scholarly journals REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN POSITIVE SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AMONG YOUTH IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford Odimegwu ◽  
Oluwaseyi Dolapo Somefun ◽  
Vesper H. Chisumpa
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Sexual Debut ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
African Region ◽  
Sexual Behaviours ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Individual

SummaryThe question of youth sexual behaviour has been widely debated, with researchers such as Berhan and Berhan (2015) arguing that young adults aged 15–24 are more likely to engage in risky behaviours. However, research has not adequately addressed the issue of positive sexual behaviours, in particular among young people in sub-Saharan Africa. Adapting the compensatory model of risk and resiliency theory, this study examined the determinants of positive sexual behaviours among youth in sub-Saharan Africa. Using recent data from Demographic and Health Surveys of sixteen countries representative of each African region (East, West, Southern and Central), it was hypothesized that positive sexual behaviours of youth (condom use at last sex and single sexual partnership) would be most strengthened by protective factors at the individual and family levels, and that these behaviours would differ by region due to regional variation in socio-cultural practices. Delayed age at sexual debut (first sex after the age of 15) was found to be the strongest protective factor for positive sexual behaviours among males and females in sub-Saharan Africa. Certain socioeconomic variables were found to be positively associated with positive sexual behaviours and the associations differed by gender.

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