International Family Planning Perspectives articles from September 2003

International Family Planning Perspectives archives from September 2003

In this issue.
September 1, 2003... Complications from spontaneous and unsafely induced abortions are a major cause of maternal mortality and poor health in most developing countries. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 70,000 women worldwide die every year from...

Just one screening may prevent cervical cancer.(Update)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Visual inspection of the cervix after application of acetic acid and treatment by cryotherapy at the same visit is a practical approach to preventing cervical cancer in low-resource settings, according to a study conducted in Roi-Et Province,...

Cambodian sex workers use condoms inconsistently.(Update)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Despite the Cambodian government's policy to promote 100% condom use in entertainment establishments, economic barriers and lack of negotiation skills may be preventing female sex workers from using condoms consistently with clients. (1) In...

In India, more girls than boys die during infancy.(Update)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In India, infant mortality is higher among girls than among boys, according to an analysis of births and infant deaths that were recorded between January 1997 and December 2001 in three poor areas of Delhi. (1) During that period, the sex ratio...

Disapproval of female genital mutilation in the Sudan.(Update)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In July 2000, the majority of students at the University of Khartoum, Sudan, who answered an anonymous questionnaire on female genital mutilation said that the practice should be stopped. (1) Of the 414 respondents (222 men and 192 women,...

Rate of cesarean delivery is rising in Turkey.(Update)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The proportion of hospital births occurring by cesarean section in Turkey increased from 8% in 1988-1992 to 19% in 1993-1998, according to an analysis of data from Turkish Demographic and Health Surveys. (1) After adjustment for various...

Sexual experience among Nigerian students.(Update)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In Plateau state, Nigeria, secondary school students who come from polygamous families and those with a lower sense of connectedness to their parents and to school have elevated odds of ever having had intercourse. (1) Of 2,705 school students...

Exclusive breast-feeding lowers risk of diarrhea.(Update)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Women who receive periodic counseling about exclusively breast-feeding children until the age of six months are less likely than those who do not to report infant diarrhea. (1) In a randomized controlled trial conducted between October 1999 and...

Obstetric fistula--a condition caused by tissue injury during prolonged obstructed labor that can lead to urinary and fecal incontinence--is widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... * Obstetric fistula--a condition caused by tissue injury during prolonged obstructed labor that can lead to urinary and fecal incontinence--is widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a nine-country study. Affected women--as many as one...

In its evaluation of the gaps between HIV prevention needs and current efforts, an international expert group has estimated that worldwide, fewer than one in five people at risk of HIV infection have access to prevention programs.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... * In its evaluation of the gaps between HIV prevention needs and current efforts, an international expert group has estimated that worldwide, fewer than one in five people at risk of HIV infection have access to prevention programs, and only...

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the University of Toronto International Programme on Reproductive and Sexual Health Law have produced a report on a broad range of reproductive rights issues.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... * The Center for Reproductive Rights and the University of Toronto International Programme on Reproductive and Sexual Health Law have produced a report on a broad range of reproductive rights issues related to the work of United Nations...

Essential elements of postabortion care: origins, evolution and future directions.(Issues In Perspective)
September 1, 2003... Complications from spontaneous abortions and unsafely induced abortions pose a serious global threat to women's health and lives. An estimated 46 million induced abortions are performed annually; (1) about 20 million are unsafe, and 95% of...

Comparing the quality of three models of postabortion care in public hospitals in Mexico City.(Issues In Perspective)
September 1, 2003... CONTEXT: Each year, an estimated 120,000 women in Mexico seek treatment in public hospitals for abortion-related complications--the country's fourth leading cause of maternal mortality. Models of postabortion care emphasizing counseling and...

Moving from research to program--the Egyptian postabortion care initiative.(Issues In Perspective)
September 1, 2003... In settings where abortion is legally restricted and socially sanctioned, the medical treatment of women who have had unsafe or incomplete abortions is often a willfully neglected service. Research conducted in the 1990s brought attention to...

Client-provider communication in postabortion care.(Issues In Perspective)
September 1, 2003... Many medical workers who treat women experiencing complications of induced or spontaneous abortion readily acknowledge that such women need "counseling," but they often view counseling as a nonmedical function requiring specific training, a...

Facility-level reproductive health interventions and contraceptive use in Uganda.
September 1, 2003... CONTEXT: In Uganda, modern contraceptive use has recently increased in areas served by the Delivery of Improved Services for Health (DISH) project. Whether these increases are associated with facility-level factors is unknown, however. ...

The impact of household delivery of family planning services on women's status in Bangladesh.
September 1, 2003... CONTEXT: Qualitative studies assessing the impact of the household delivery of family planning services on women's social status have yielded contradictory findings. Given the resumption of these services in Bangladesh in 2003, it is important...

Unintended pregnancy is linked to inadequate prenatal care, but not to unattended delivery or child health.(Digests)
September 1, 2003... Pregnancy intention status has little or no effect on medical supervision at delivery, child vaccination or adequacy of growth, once the impact of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics is accounted for; intendedness does appear to...

In Bangladesh, women's risk of domestic violence is linked to their status.(Digests)
September 1, 2003... In rural Bangladesh, a married woman's risk of experiencing domestic violence is associated with her individual autonomy, as well as the autonomy of women within her community. (1) In the more culturally conservative of two study areas, women...

Method-related problems account for most failures of the female condom.(Digests)
September 1, 2003... The female condom rarely breaks during use, but an efficacy study conducted in 1996-1998 indicates that slippage occurs in nearly one in 10 uses and women may be exposed to semen in up to one in five uses. (1) Although the risk of exposure is...

Contraceptive use among Chinese couples changes over life of relationship.(Digests)
September 1, 2003... The proportion of couples in Shanghai, China, practicing contraception and the method chosen vary substantially by the stage of the relationship. (1) Twelve percent of couples had had premarital intercourse, and they were unprotected by a...

Relative risk of cervical cancer rises with duration of oral contraceptive use.(Digests)
September 1, 2003... The relative risk of cervical cancer rises the longer a woman is on the pill. According to a meta-analysis based on data from 28 studies, (1) women who use the pill for 10 or more years are 2.2 times as likely as never-users to develop cervical...

The risk of HIV infection among Brazilian men is twice that among women.(Digests)
September 1, 2003... Among Brazilians, injecting cocaine, having an HIV-positive partner and having male-male sexual relations may each significantly increase the risk for HIV infection. These risk factors were identified in a cross-sectional study of voluntarily...

Abused women's children have an increased risk of dying before age five.(Digests)
September 1, 2003... Children of women who experience physical or sexual violence--whether before, during or after pregnancy--are significantly more likely to die before age five, according to a study in Leon, Nicaragua. (1) The odds of losing a child among women...