Heights of couples of arranged marriages in Islamabad, Pakistan, were measured. There is an overall significant correlation, and this correlation is maintained when the data are subdivided according to various classifications, e.g. social class. Some hypotheses are put forward to explain the correlations.

A survey of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of 1298 Filipino health professionals towards breast-feeding is analysed. Knowledge of the benefits of breast-feeding, the psychophysiology of lactation, contraindications to breast-feeding, and the effects of drugs and contraceptives on lactation and delivery are some of the issues examined. A low level of knowledge about breast-feeding, particularly of health contraindications, is found. Industry and government programmes have both positive and negative effects on breast-feeding knowledge and attitudes.

Data from reproductive histories collected in the Population, Labour Force and Migration Survey of 1979 are used to analyse trends and differentials in infant and child mortality in Pakistan. Comparisons with the Pakistan Fertility Survey findings are also presented. Whereas levels differ substantially across the two surveys, trends and differentials are generally similar. Infant–child mortality seems to have declined until the mid-1960s, stabilized for some years and even risen slightly in the latest period of the two surveys.

Neonatal mortality is responsible for a high proportion of deaths under age 1 and is particularly high for first order births and children born to very young or very old mothers. Higher infant and childhood mortality are also related to these factors and also to a shorter preceding birth interval, the early death of the preceding child and sex of the child. Education of mother and residence were also found to be critical determinants of infant and child mortality.

Two hundred and fifty-five married women about to have a tubal ligation and 167 women whose husbands were about to have a vasectomy were interviewed about their decisions. The data were analysed to determine the factors with which pre-surgical ambivalence about the decision was associated.

Three independent factors were indicated: a substantive factor related to childbearing motivations, attitudes, and beliefs; a processual factor related to the decision-making process; and a contextual factor relating to situational pressures for and against the decision.

This study presents parent–offspring and sibling resemblances for verbal and visuospatial IQ components and total IQ scores in both non-manual and manual social groups. Offspring on mid parent regression coefficients provided upper limits to phenotypic IQ similarity. There were no significant differences in regressions between social groups.

The sex linked hypothesis for spatial ability was examined but neither parent–offspring nor sibling correlations were in the order predicted by the hypothesis.

This paper examines the determinants of infant and child mortality variations in four near east countries using data from WFS surveys. The analysis considers biological correlates of mortality—mother's age, birth order, birth interval, and previous infant loss—and several social factors—mother's and father's education, mother's residence, father's occupation, and mother's work experience since marriage. A multivariate analysis using a logistic regression model is carried out to obtain the net effect of each factor on mortality. Separate models are constructed for infant mortality and childhood mortality and for each country.

The four countries show large variations in mortality, but this is persistently higher in female than male children. All four demographic characteristics affect mortality significantly, especially the length of the preceding birth interval. Among the socioeconomic variables, only rural–urban residence is influential.

Visual acuity was tested and the anterior portion of the eye inspected among the Gidra in Lowland Papua New Guinea, who depend on hunting for their animal food. The visual acuity of the youths and adults was as high as that of hunters and gatherers; 88% of the males and 81% of the females had an acuity of 1·2 or better. The elders had far lower acuity, correlated with the advance of cataract (or corneal opacity). The senescent visual acuity is discussed in relation to little practice and low productivity of the elders' hunting, and to the Gidra traditional age-grade system.

In a case-control study of low birthweight deliveries, comparison of hospital records with interviews conducted soon after delivery fails to confirm the widely-held view that concurrently recorded medical notes are superior to retrospective interviewing. The overall agreement was very good, with slight under-reporting of past abortions by mothers, and marked relative under-recording in the hospital records of vaginal bleeding and especially vaginal discharge. Generally, the rates of disagreement between interviews and hospital notes were similar for those women who had low birthweight babies and those who had normal birthweight babies, except for one single item. Uncertainty or lack of information occurred in the hospital notes as often as in the interviews.

When different accounts of labour were present within a single set of medical records, the level of internal consistency was examined. There were more definite contradictions within the hospital notes than had been observed between the notes and the interviews. Moreover, a very marked association of within-hospital contradiction with birthweight was found, suggesting a possibility of bias when hospital records are used for the investigation of conditions associated with low birthweight. One should not, however, conclude that hospital notes are necessarily more error-prone than interviews, as many of the within-hospital contradictions reflected diagnostic uncertainty in complicated cases.

The relationship between the return of menstruation and ovulation and the pattern of breast-feeding was studied in a group of 29 women in a rural area of Mexico; eight non-breast-feeding post-partum women were also studied. The return of ovulation was assessed by weekly determinations of urinary pregnanediol. The number of suckling episodes and supplementary feeds was recorded. The cumulative probability of resumption of menses for the breast-feeders was 28% and 52% at 3 and 6 months, respectively, and for the non-breast-feeders was 75% and 88%. The cumulative probability of ovulation for the breast-feeders was 28%, 66%, 69% and 72% at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, respectively, and for the non-breast-feeders was 50% and 100% at 3 and 6 months. The earlier the introduction of supplements the earlier the return of ovulation. The nonovulatory subjects maintained a higher frequency of suckling episodes than did the ovulatory subjects. The cumulative probability of pregnancy for the breast-feeders was 3%, 7%, 7% and 10% at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, respectively, and for the non-breast-feeders was 13%, 38% and 50% at 3, 6 and 9 months.

Official abortion statistics for South Australia for the years 1977–81 were examined and compared with those for 1970–76 reported earlier. The period 1970–81 represents the first 12 years' experience of legalized abortion in South Australia. A consistent increase in the incidence of abortion was noted, both in absolute numbers and in proportion to the number of live births. South Australia continued to experience lower fertility than other Australian states, although this would have been higher than in other states had it not been for the legalization of abortion. More of the younger and the unmarried women were obtaining abortions, indicating that they were increasingly using abortion as a form of birth control.

Data from 723 families tested for ocular refraction, measures of cognitive ability and school achievement, and measures of school-related nearwork activity were analysed, to examine the association of nearwork and intellectual ability with the development of myopia. The basis of the tests was detection of heterogeneity of standardized regression coefficients, derived from the regression of spherical refraction on age, between scaled nearwork or achievement measures. The results did not provide any evidence in support of the hypothesis that nearwork influences myopia but did confirm a relationship between school grades and myopia.

In a prospective study of 2324 women in Matlab, Bangladesh, the occurrence of primary and secondary sterility by age groups was examined. The results were related to the nutritional status of the women, as assessed by measurements of height, weight, arm circumference and ponderal index. There is evidence that nutritional status is an important factor in estimated age at sterility, with thinner women experiencing a slightly earlier menopause.

Longitudinal data collected over a 2-year period (1982–84) on 152 first and second parity mothers who were delivered in a charity maternity hospital in Manila, Philippines, indicate the reasons for never brest-feeding and for early termination of brest-feeding. Socio-Cultural factors and beliefs are more important than physiological problems in minating breast-feeding.

Proper bottle-feeding is too costly for most low-income families. Bottle-fed babies have a higher incidence of diarrhoea. Mothers who change from breast- to bottle-feeding in the first 6 months are 1·7 times as likely to become pregnant in the first year post-partum as mothers Who brest-feed for 7 or more months.

In pre-transitional societies, contraceptive practice is usually low or absent and prolonged breast-feeding has been identified as the major factor in keeping marital fertility levels below the biological maximum (Bongaarts, 1978), so that the length of birth intervals is the strongest determinant of completed family size.

In transitional societies there is accumulating evidence that, with increasing modernization, the percentage of women who initiate breast-feeding and the duration of breast-feeding are declining (Jelliffe & Jelliffe, 1972; McCann et al., 1981; Rosa, 1976). Shorter durations of breast-feeding are observed for women who are more educated, belong to the upper socioeconomic class and live in urban areas (Jain & Sun, 1972; Lesthaeghe & Page, 1980).

Two 10-year marriage cohorts from two surveys of married women in Melbourne were compared on their timing of the first and second births. The results showed that women who were married in the early 1970s were much more likely to delay their first birth until about the third or fourth year of marriage compared with women who married in the 1960s. However, there was no difference in the timing of their second birth in relation to the first birth between the two marriage cohorts. Women who delayed childbearing also preferred smaller families. Economic reasons were most frequently mentioned for delaying childbearing.