International Family Planning Perspectives articles from March 2004

International Family Planning Perspectives archives from March 2004

Maternal mortality around the world.(Update)
March 1, 2004... Of the estimated 529,000 maternal deaths that occurred worldwide in 2000, the vast majority were in Africa and Asia (251,000 and 253,000 deaths, respectively), according to a joint report from the World Health Organization, United Nations (UN)...

Adolescents' reproductive health needs.(Update)
March 1, 2004... Approximately 1.2 billion people--one-fifth of the world's population-are aged 10-19 and urgently need help to avoid unwanted pregnancy, unsafe delivery and sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), according to the United Nations...

Programs that change youth behavior.(Update)
March 1, 2004... In Sub-Saharan Africa, youth-oriented programs can motivate young people to use reproductive health services, use condoms and be tested for HIV, according to a joint report by the Population Reference Bureau and Population Services...

Antenatal syphilis screening is cost-effective.(Update)
March 1, 2004... Antenatal syphilis screening is at least as cost-effective as other maternal and child health interventions, according to a study conducted among 9,713 women who attended antenatal clinics in Mwanza, Tanzania, between September 1997 and...

Air-dried Pap smears are as good as wet-fixed ones.(Update)
March 1, 2004... Rehydrated air-dried cervical smear specimens provide a viable alternative to wet-fixed specimens for Pap testing in settings with limited resources. (1) In a study comparing the two techniques, paramedical workers collected a pair of cervical...

Aids orphans in africa.(Update)
March 1, 2004... In 2001, some 11 million Sub-Saharan African children younger than 15 had lost one or both parents to AIDS, making up one-third of all orphans in the region. (1) According to a report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the...

Use of injectables is on the rise in Kenya.(Update)
March 1, 2004... In Kenya, the use of injectable contraceptives is becoming increasingly popular, according to an analysis of data from national Demographic and Health Surveys. (1) Between 1984 and 1998, the proportion of married women aged 15-49 using this...

A manual on how to incorporate gender concerns into reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programs has been published by the U.S. Agency for International Development.(In Brief)
March 1, 2004... * A manual on how to incorporate gender concerns into reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programs has been published by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Intended for program managers and technical staff, the manual aims at promoting...

International Planned Parenthood and the United Nations Population Fund.(In Brief)
March 1, 2004... * International Planned Parenthood and the United Nations Population Fund have produced a set of guidelines to assist program planners, managers and service providers who want to offer voluntary HIV testing and counseling. Integrating HIV...

Two reports from The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) identify deficits in reproductive health care around the world.(In Brief)
March 1, 2004... * Two reports from The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) identify deficits in reproductive health care around the world. In Their Own Right: Addressing the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Men Worldwide analyzes the sexual and reproductive...

Unintended pregnancy among newly married couples in Shanghai.(Articles)
March 1, 2004... CONTEXT: Though contraceptive failure and induced abortion in China have both attracted research attention, the somewhat broader topic of unintended pregnancy has been neglected. METHODS: A total of 7,872 newly married couples, enrolled...

Compression of women's reproductive spans in Andhra Pradesh, India.
March 1, 2004... CONTEXT: The total fertility rate in Andhra Pradesh, India, has recently decreased to near-replacement level; however, the reasons for the fertility decline are unknown. METHODS: Data from the second round of the National Family Health...

Religious affiliation and extramarital sex among men in Brazil.
March 1, 2004... CONTEXT: Since 1990, HIV infection in Brazil has spread among the heterosexual population, particularly in the north. Containment of the epidemic can be informed by a better understanding of men's sexual risk behavior. METHODS: Logistic,...

Acknowledgment to reviewers.
March 1, 2004... The editors wish to express their appreciation to the following reviewers for their assistance in evaluating material for International Family Planning Perspectives in 2003: Jacob A. Adetunji Sohail Agha Saifuddin Ahmed ...

Political management in the Indonesian family planning program.(Special Report)
March 1, 2004... "One cannot take for granted that the president as the top leader has the wisdom to decide what priorities are. We have to feed the president with completed stuff so he doesn't have to think too much." --Senior Indonesian family planning...

Whatever happened to family planning and, for that matter, Reproductive Health?(Viewpoint)
March 1, 2004... In 1994, the nations of the world gathered in Cairo for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and hammered out the comprehensive Programme of Action to improve women's sexual and reproductive health. (1) Just six...

Plateaus during the rise of contraceptive prevalence.(Comment)
March 1, 2004... Although contraceptive use has increased impressively in many countries over the past few decades, occasional flat periods have raised serious concerns about the effectiveness of the national action programs involved. Plateaus have...

In Bangladesh, a woman's risk of death is elevated for two to three years after the birth of each child.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... In rural Bangladesh, women's mortality is not directly related to the total number of children they bear or to their pace of childbearing. (1) Analyses based on Matlab Demographic Surveillance System data show, however, that each birth is...

Antenatal education helps Turkish women adopt health-promoting behavior.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... First-time Turkish mothers who participated in a community-based antenatal education program were more likely than nonparticipants to adopt behaviors beneficial to their infants' and their own health soon after delivery. (1) Women who attended...

After vasectomy, sperm clearance may occur later than previously thought.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... A sizable minority of men receiving vasectomy by simple ligation and excision--perhaps the most commonly performed male sterilization technique in low-resource settings--may still be at substantial risk for fertility six months after the...

Midwife care is as safe as physician-led care for Nepalese women with low-risk pregnancies.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... For women in Nepal who have low-risk pregnancies, giving birth under the care of a midwife appears to be as safe as giving birth under the care of a physician, and is generally less invasive. (1) In a study among women expected to have an...

Indian women who have daughters but no sons face an increased risk of marital dissolution.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... In India, where sons have traditionally been strongly preferred to daughters, low-parity women with no sons have a significantly elevated risk of having their marriage dissolve. (1) Using data from the first two National Family Health Surveys,...

Filipino couples' traits are tied to spousal agreement on pregnancy wantedness.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... In the Philippines, married couples who have large families, and those who depend solely on the husband for their household income, hold more fatalistic attitudes or are practicing Catholics are significantly more likely than other couples to...

Long-term use of female condom may hinge partly on depth of instruction.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... In the month after they were randomly assigned to an intervention that included the female condom in an array of strategies aimed at preventing unprotected intercourse, participants perceived the method to be more effective than nonparticipants...

Treating common vaginal infections may lower women's herpes risk.(Digests)
March 1, 2004... Women have roughly doubled odds of having herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection if they have abnormal vaginal flora or if they have ever had an uncircumcised sex partner, and their odds are increased by half if group B Streptococcus is...