Showing papers on "Rural area published in 1985"

Psychiatric Disorders: A Rural/Urban Comparison

Abstract: • We studied rural/urban differences in the prevalence of nine psychiatric disorders from a community survey (part of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program) of 3,921 adults living in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Crude comparisons disclosed that major depressive episodes and drug abuse and/ or dependence were more common in the urban area, whereas alcohol abuse/dependence was more common in the rural area. When prevalence for these disorders was stratified for age, sex, race, and education (factors that may confound urban/rural comparisons), a number of significant differences were identified, such as higher prevalence of major depression in female and white subjects and higher prevalence of alcohol abuse/dependence in the less educated subjects. A logisticregression analysis was used to determine if significant urban/ rural differences persisted when these potential confounders were controlled. Major depressive disorders were found to be twice as frequent in the urban area in this controlled analysis.

The old-age security motive for fertility.

Abstract: The conditions under which the old-age security motive could be expected to be significant for fertility are described. Such conditions are likely to prevail in rural areas of developing countries and especially among women. Empirical studies on the subject are evaluated and the inconclusive and contradictory nature of the findings are attributed to failures to select appropriate samples and variables. Most findings derive from studies only marginally concerned with the old-age security motive for fertility. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research. Some of the earlier studies found surprisingly little or no relation between the old-age pension participation variables and various measures of fertility especially in developing countries. More recent studies have generally found significant negative relationships. Entwisle and Winegarden obtained evidence of a reinforcing feedback from low fertility to the expansion of the depth and breadth of coverage of participation in old-age security programs. A study done by DeVany and Sanchez concluded that the land-retention and other benefits of children to their parents are greater for those living on land which cannot be bought or sold than for those on privately owned land. Nugent and Gillaspy found that fertility changes between 1960 and 1970 across counties were negatively related to the size of the social security proxy variable. Cains 1981 study showed that the insecurity characterizing rural areas of developing countries is not limited to old age and disability but also includes calamitous events whose presence contribute to high fertility. The 1980 study of Vlassoff and Vlassoff concluded that old-age security was unimportant as a motive for fertility. There is a need for additional more systematic and more special-purpose empirical studies to investigate the impact of old-age security on fertility. Studies should be conducted in rural areas of developing countries where the old-age pension motive is expected to be strong. The sample size should be large enough to afford the opportunity to isolate the old-age pension affects from the effects of other variables and data collection should be repeated at various times. (summaries in ENG FRE SPA)

A comparison of foraging by Eptesicus fuscus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in urban and rural environments

Abstract: We compared the foraging activity of populations of Eptesicus fuscus in rural and urban settings in eastern Ontario and western Quebec by monitoring their echolocation calls and by radio tracking i...

Urban Population Growth and Urbanization in China Since 1949: Reconstructing a Baseline

Abstract: China's urbanization patterns and policies since 1949 have been the focus of a good deal of attention. The main elements of this “Chinese Model” have been the massive “rustication” movements, the recruitment of large numbers of city dwellers to work in rural areas, strict controls on rural-urban migration through food rationing and household registration, and the expansion of rural employment through the development of rural industries. While controlling urban population growth has been problematic to most governments of developing countries, it has been widely accepted that China, particularly in the Maoist era, has been successful in this sphere. The “Chinese Model”, therefore, may offer such countries great promise as an alternative approach.

Strategies of Child-Fosterage Among Mende Grannies in Sierra Leone

Abstract: This paper analyzes child fosterage practices among the Mende "grannies" of Sierra Leone. It is argued that this practice mitigates the costs of high fertility to childbearers and distributes the benefits of children to elderly women. The data were drawn from an ethnographic survey involving 155 in-factors and 117 out-fosters. 22.5% of children under 5 years of age born to women surveyed 27.8% of children ages 6-10 years and 45.9% of those in the 11-15 year age group were living apart from their mothers. Whereas older children are sent to fosterage to obtain an education and make contacts that may allow them to enter the national government or business world smaller children are generally sent for reasons of child care especially when cash and food supplies are low. Grannies with wealth and prestige often mind many children. Factors such as sex legitimacy sibling order and age influence which children are sent to grannies. Girls high order siblings and illegitimate children are more likely to be sent to rural areas for care. In addition to the childrens labor grannies obtain money and supplies from parents; the ties to parents this arrangement implies provides these women with the means to subsist. In addition there is the potential of support from the children themselves in the future. Despite their illiteracy and isolation from the modern economy rural grannies are able to attain many of the benefits of modernization (e.g. cash imported household and clothing items access to modern legal help and medical care) through the institution of fosterage. To a certain extent the rural subsistence sector is absorbing some of the costs of high urban fertility. Sending a child to a rural granny allows young urban dwellers to avoid food and maintenance expenditures as well as losses of time from work. Finally fosterage provides urban migrants with a means to maintain ties with the rural community if they fail to integrate themselves into the urban area and must return home.

NONMETROPOLITAN GROWTH IN THE LATE 1970s: THE END OF THE TURNAROUND?

Abstract: The "discovery" of the turnaround in growth patterns between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in the early 1970s generated a large body of both theoretical and descriptive literature. Early research documented that the switch from negative to positive net migration into nonmetro areas was more than just a continuation of urban sprawl and that real growth was occurring in remote rural areas. Explanations for the trend included both the economic (deconcentration of manufacturing, expanding energy extraction, growth in the government and service sectors) and the non-economic (preference for rural living, retirement migration, and the modernization of nonmetro areas, including

Rural Roads And Poverty Alleviation

Abstract: This study analyses the pattern and the use of local road networks, and the causes and effects of road programmes, for goods transport and in the areas of personal travel, education, health - and poverty alleviation in general. The impact of the selection criteria actually used in specific road programmes in four countries - Egypt, India, Botswana and Thailand - is presented, and suggestions made for appropriate selection criteria for the future.

Counterurbanisation: a rural perspective

Abstract: An analysis of counter-urbanization in rural Britain is presented from a rural perspective. Consideration is given to the macro-level factors including employment growth that are associated with rural population growth. However the author also examines localized conditions particularly in the remoter rural areas in order to evaluate the variations in the degree of local receptiveness to broader trends. The specific migration patterns in local areas are seen as a result of the continuation of wide-level push and local-level pull factors. (ANNOTATION)

Rural elderly in demographic perspective

Abstract: Any strategy for economic diversification requires considerable and continuing local effort. No one group can, or should, undertake the task alone. Perhaps local city and county government can serve as a catalyst or coordinator, but many groups and interests should cooperate. Groups that can make important contributions are Chambers of Commerce, downtown development com.mittees, county and regional planning bodies, private industry councils, State government economic development offices, and extension services of agricultural and business colleges.

Prevalence and determinants of nutritional blindness in Bangladeshi children.

Abstract: Nutritional blindness due to vitamin A deficiency has been recognized for many years as a serious public health problem in Bangladesh. The lack of reliable epidemiologic information about the dimension and causes of the problem has spurred a national study of blindness in young children. Another aim of the study was to establish reduction of nutritional blindness as a priority goal for health and nutrition policy. The full study protocol including eye examination was piloted in 800 households. From December 1982 to April 1983 4 specially trained Bangladeshi ophthalmologists with their interviewer teams examined the eyes of 18660 children from 11618 rural households and 3675 children from 2271 urban slum households. Fieldwork was carried out during a period of likely lower xerophthalmia prevalence after the main rice harvest and during the growing season for dark green leafy vegetables. In looking at the findings 2 points should be kept in mind. 1st the distinction between affected children and eyes involved always needs to be made. 2nd eye findings for xerophthalmia in Bangladesh exist against a background of a vitamin A capsule distribution program (VAC). Overall 739 out of 18660 rural and 211 out of 3675 urban children examined had abnormal eye findings. Night blindness as reported by a parent or guardian was the commonest symptom of xerophthalmia. The rates for night blindness rose steeply with age in rural areas and males were more likely to be reported night blind than females. About 1/2 as many rural children had conjunctival xerosis as night blindness. Corneal involvement was far less frequent than conjunctival changes. The prevalence of binocular blindness due to all causes in rural children under 6 years was 6.4/10000. Countrywide about 30000 preschool-age children are estimated as blinded each year of whom 15000 are surviving totally blind at any given time. From 11616 rural households 19314 children and from 2269 urban households 3762 children responded to VAC questions. Acceptability of VAC distribution by all communities visited was high and toxicity appeared to be rare. Night blindness rates fell consistently from an average of 43.4/1000 for clusters with 0-24% coverage to 27.5/1000 for clusters with over 75% coverage. Rates for all types of non-cornel and active-corneal xerophthalmia were all lower for children reported to have been given VAC. It is estimated that the VAC distribution program each year may prevent 3000 children from becoming blind. Risk determinants other than age and sex include diarrhea which is an important precipitant of severe lesions immediately threatening sight; measles which is another infectious disease determining nutritional blindness; household income and land ownership especially of small gardens and finally maternal education.

Rural Transport in Developing Countries

Abstract: This book suggests that conventional rural transport planning in developing countries has been almost exclusively concerned with motorised transport, and with roads designed for its use. Whilst this has no doubt resulted in more effective identification of rural road needs, it has ignored local-level transport systems which provide the means of mobility and access for the mass of the rural population. The core of the book is a series of nine case studies from Malaysia, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Samoa, Korea, the Philippines, Tanzania and Bangladesh which provide a very different picture of rural transport needs. The studies encompass countries at different stages of development, from those at the most impoverished levels (Bangladesh and Tanzania) to those which have sizeable industrial and market economy sectors, and relatively high per capita incomes (Republic of Korea and Malaysia). They also cover a variety of different agricultural, social and geographic conditions and include a wide range of different human, animal and motor-powered means of transport used to meet local movement needs. The case studies have been grouped into three parts. The first comprises studies of the travel patterns of rural communities. The second looks at particular means of local transport. The studies that form the third part are more concerned with evaluations of transport policy and how it affects rural communities. The writers have attempted to draw together the main elements of these case studies to suggest that there is a need to broaden the scope of rural transport planning to encompass the totality of transport demand. In this way, a more rational investment of resources could result in more productive uses of time and energy in the rural areas. (TRRL)

Land and the Uses of Tradition Among the Mbeere of Kenya

Abstract: entrepreneurs are younger and better educated and more likely to engage in manufacturing, repairs, and services than the shopkeepers. The modal age of an enterprise in the survey was one year, and the median age was three. These characteristics suggest instability and a high turnover rate with many failures and false starts-a complex selective process as people, enterprises, and locations compete. The informal sector in rural Kenya has an important role in economic development and vocational training. It fills important niches, often with great skill and efficiency. It strengthens the fabric of rural life. It responds to demands created by new attitudes and expectations. The informal sector is labor intensive and material saving with a strong emphasis on repair, reuse, and recycling. If your automobile developed trouble in the United States during Easter weekend, you probably would not have found a repair shop open. If you had found one open, the mechanic would have tossed the old pipe and muffler into the trash and the repairs would have cost much more. "Rural Enterprise in Kenya" makes a useful contribution to a topic on which there is increased interest. The men and women who run the

A serosurvey for leptospirosis in Trinidad among urban and rural dwellers and persons occupationally at risk

Abstract: A survey for leptospiral antibodies was made of 1,375 persons in northern Trinidad between mid-1977 and mid-1978. The subjects were employees in seven occupational categories thought to entail a high risk of exposure to leptospires, and members of the general population of three rural and two urban communities. They were questioned inter alia about their leisure and occupational activities, household water supply and effluent, and contact with animals. Leptospiral infection was found to be widespread in the general population but not primarily associated with employment. Among the occupational groups the highest prevalence of antibodies was found in sugar-cane workers (45% infected), while among the communities prevalence was highest in the rural village of Cacandee (37%) and lowest in Woodbrook (Port-of-Spain) (5%). Keeping cattle, hunting and walking barefoot in the countryside were significantly associated with leptospiral serology. Over-all, serogroups Icterohaemorrhagiae and Autumnalis each accounted for about 25% of the seropositives in the general population. Among the occupational groups Autumnalis was the most commonly found (36%). It accounted for 42% of the seropositive sugar-cane workers and 57% of the seropositive rice farmers.

The Single-child Family Policy in the Countryside

Abstract: As 80 per cent of China’s population is rural and 87.2 per cent of births in China occur in the countryside it is ultimately there that the battle to control population growth will be won or lost.1 Far greater efforts are needed in the villages than in the towns, not only because peasants vastly outnumber city-dwellers, but also because while some conditions historically associated with a rapid fall in fertility are present in the towns, this is not the case in the countryside. In the 1960s, China’s planners, like planners in many other developing countries, saw efficient delivery of the contraceptives and contraceptive education as the main tasks in population control. By the 1970s they had recognised that motivation was the fundamental problem.

Shortcut methods of gathering social information for rural development projects.

Abstract: Decisionmakers need information that is relevant, timely, accurate, and usable. In rural development, a great deal of the information that is generated is, in various combinations, irrelevant, late, wrong, or unusable anyway. It is also often costly to obtain, process, analyze, and digest. Although many professional social scientists have given thought to improving information gathering, it remains a remarkably inefficient activity. Criteria of cost-effectiveness have not often been applied, and manifest inefficiency is sometimes met by demanding not better information, or less, but simply more.

Lead poisoning among children from Santo Amaro, Brazil.

Abstract: Santo Amaro is a city in the state of Bahia in Northeast Brazil; according to the 1980 National Census (1) Santo Amaro then had a population of 29,627 inhabitants. For hundreds of years, sugar cane has been the area’s main cash crop, but the city’s strategic location in the inner part of Todos OS Santos Bay (Figure 1) has also favored a flourishing maritime trade. In recent decades, the rapid industrialization of nearby areas and the extensive use of highways for transportation of goods has produced a negative impact upon the economic life of the city. (Fishing, once an important economic subsistence activity, has been declining, for example.) These circumstances have contributed to making a large number of people unemployed, although local conditions have also attracted some industries to the area, mainly because of cheap and abundant labor. Over the past three decades, living conditions in northeastern Bahia’s rural areas have been gradually deteriorating. Consequently, large

An Epidemiological Assessment of Immunization Programme Participation in the Philippines

Abstract: Because a large proportion of preschool children failed to present for free diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) immunizations in a poor, rural area of the Philippines, we undertook an epidemiological analysis of their characteristics. The parents of 159 children were interviewed to determine the demographic, attitudinal, knowledge, and administrative correlates of immunization status. Logistic regression was used to model immunization status. Children were less likely to be immunized if they had a high score on an Adversity Index (composed of measures of the weather, the number of visits the team made, the distance, the appropriateness of the time of day, and miscellaneous problems), if they received health care from a native mother and child health specialist, if a parent was not on the town council, and if pain was an important deterrent. By contrast, many demographic and attitudinal measures that have traditionally been thought to predict health behaviour were not useful discriminators. Recommendations are made for immunization programme management. The general use of this method for programme planning is elaborated.

An epidemiologic study of psychiatric disorders in a rural area in tamilnadu.

Abstract: An epidemiological study of priority psychiatric conditions in a rural area in Tamil Nadu is described. The prevalence or psychiatric disorders in this rural area is 14.5 per 1000 population and this is comparable to figures reported from urban studies. The prevalence is highest in the 15-44 year age group. It is higher in males in the younger age group and in females in the older age group. No significant statistical differences in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders arc noticed when factors such as family size, caste, and socioeconomic status are considered. About 75% of the patients have been sick for more than one year and they have not had any treatment. The implications of the above observations are discussed.