Attitudes towards abortion and contraception in rural and urban Burkina Faso

Using results from the ethnographic literature and two qualitative studies on people’s representations of different means of birth control (abstinence, contraception, abortion) in two populations in Burkina Faso (one rural and one urban), we designed a multi-dimensional quantitative scale to measure individuals’ attitudes towards varied means of birth control. We applied it in two representative surveys in rural and urban Burkina Faso. Relating individuals’ attitudes towards birth control to their socio-demographic characteristics and to their attitudes towards other life dimensions, and applying N. Elias’ theory of the civilization process, we seek to explain why abortion is less tolerated, while more widely practiced, in the city than in the villages.abortion, abstinence, Africa, attitude(s), Burkina Faso, civilization, contraception, culture, meanings, practices, process, representations, rural, sexuality, social change, urban

France: High and stable fertility

The current total fertility rate in France is around 1.9 children per woman. This is a relatively high level by current European standards and makes France an outlier, despite the fact that its other demographic trends, especially conjugal behaviour, and social and economic trends are not very different from other Western European countries. France can serve as a counterfactual test case for some of the hypotheses advanced to explain the current low level of fertility in most European countries (delay in fertility, decline in marriage, increased birth control, greater economic uncertainty). France’s fertility level can be partly explained by its active family policy introduced after the Second World War, and adapted in the 1980s to accommodate women’s entry into the labour force. This policy is the result of a battle, fuelled by pro-natalism, between the conservative supporters of family values and the promoters of state-supported individual equality. French family policy thus encompasses a wide range of measures based on varying ideological backgrounds, and it is difficult to classify in comparison to the more precisely focused family policies of other European welfare states. The active family policy seems to have created especially positive attitudes towards two- or three child families in France.childbearing, fertility, France

French family policy: long tradition and diversified measures

In France, the intervention of the state in the private sphere has long been accepted as legitimate. The current French family policy is the result of a compromise between the objectives of raising fertility, providing income support to families and promoting the work-family balance. Thus it includes a wide range of measures based on a variety of ideological standpoints. It combines measures encouraging women's employment with others in favour of large families. Recently, employers have been encouraged to implement family-friendly policies of their own. Since the state family policy is already quite comprehensive, their participation is rather low. This long-term `mix of tools' is likely to be a factor behind the current high fertility in France, but the number and the complexity of family policy measures make it very difficult to quantify their overall effect on fertility.

Have conditions under which women undergo abortion improved around the world ?

Agnès Guillaume and Clémentine Rossier review the evidence on abortion in the world since 1990. Few countries have liberalized their laws since then, and regressive movements are frequent. The diffusion of medical abortion and post-abortion care have made abortion safer, but progress is lagging for the poorest women and countries. While better contraception means fewer abortions, other adverse factors are raising the number of unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion

Family Demography in the Post-Covid Era

The author writes that Covid-19 is like other adverse life events—illness, divorce, job loss—in its differing impact on those with more versus fewer resources, and its potential for lasting socioeconomic effects

Why the Standard TFR gives a Misleading Impression of the Fertility of Foreign Women: Insights from Switzerland

Since 1971 the Swiss Federal Statistical Office has published annual fertility data split by nationality (Swiss/foreign). These indicate that the TFR for women of foreign nationality has been 0.5 children higher than for Swiss women for most of the period since 1991. However, statistics from household registration (STATPOP) and the Families and Generations Surveys (FGS) in 2013 and 2018 indicate that foreign women, approaching the end of their reproductive lives, have slightly smaller families than women of Swiss nationality. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile these contradictory fertility measures. To do this, we design a novel methodology for tallying the fertility of cohorts of Swiss and foreign nationals through their reproductive life. In addition to birth registrations and population totals by age (the input data for calculating the TFR) we also include estimates of how many children women have at the time of their immigration, emigration and naturalisation. Using these input data, we compile the fertility profiles of Swiss and foreign women aged 15-49 (cohorts 1966-2003). These correspond well with the FGS and household register data. Several processes impact the final fertility of the two sub-populations. Women frequently immigrate into Switzerland in their 20s. Often arriving childless, they commonly start childbearing soon after immigration. However, there is still a flow of low-fertility women into the country in their 30s and 40s, lowering the average fertility of the foreign population. By contrast, Swiss women start childbearing later and a significant proportion remain childless; however, after starting childbearing they have a higher propensity than foreign women to have a second and third child. Naturalisation and fertility are interlinked; women with children are more likely to naturalise than those without, which then boosts the average fertility of the Swiss population. We confirm that the standard TFR gives an inflated impression of the ultimate (cohort) fertility of foreign nationals and under-estimates that of Swiss women, and we describe how this happens. Fundamentally, the TFR is a measure of childbearing intensity, not an accurate estimate of completed cohort fertility, especially for a mobile population

Differences in hypertension between informal and formal areas of Ouagadougou, a sub-Saharan African city

Background: Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly confronted with hypertension and urbanization is considered to favor its emergence. This study aims to assess the difference in the prevalence of hypertension between formal and informal urban areas of Ouagadougou and to determine the risk factors associated with hypertension in these urban populations of sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2010 on 2041 adults aged 18 years and older in formal and informal areas of Ouagadougou. Data was collected through personal interviews conducted at home. Blood pressure and anthropometric measurements were taken by trained interviewers. Logistic regressions were fitted to identify factors associated with hypertension. Results: The overall prevalence of hypertension was 18.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 16.9-20.3) and its detection was 27.4% (95% CI, 22.9-31.9). Prevalence of hypertension in formal settings was 21.4% (95% CI, 19.0-23.8), significantly higher than prevalence in informal settings: 15.3% (95% CI, 13.0-17.6). However, this difference disappeared after adjusting for age. In addition to age, being an unmarried woman (odds ratio [OR] = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1-2.4), recent rural-to-urban migration (OR = 1.8; 95% CI, 1.2-2.8), obesity (OR = 1.8; 95% CI, 1.1-3.1) and physical inactivity (OR = 1.9; 95% CI, 1.2-3.0), were independent risk factors for hypertension. Conclusions: Hypertension is common among the adult population of Ouagadougou but its detection is low. While there are no differences between formal and informal areas of the city, rural-to-urban migration emerges as an independent risk factor. Known risk factors as obesity and physical inactivity are confirmed while the vulnerability of unmarried women and rural-to-urban migrants maybe specific to this west African population

Are the urban poor really worse off? Socieconomic differentials in adult cause specific mortality at the periphery of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Résumé Dans les pays les moins développés, tandis que les citadins les plus pauvres sont plus susceptibles de mourir de maladies transmissibles et de blessures, les plus ri­ches pourraient souffrir d’un plus grand fardeau de maladies non transmissibles. Il n’est donc pas évident de savoir si dans les villes africaines les adultes les plus pau­vres sont en moins bonne santé que leurs homologues plus aisés. Dans cet article, nous décrivons les inégalités sociales qui caractérisent la mortalité des adultes (per­sonnes de 15 à 59 ans) à la périphérie de Ouagadougou, capitale du Burkina Faso. En utilisant les données du Système de Surveillance Démographique et Sanitaire de Ouagadougou, de 2009 à 2011, nous vérifions si des facteurs tels que le niveau d’éducation, la pauvreté et la résidence en quartier informel sont liés au risque de décès prématuré chez les adultes. Nous menons cette analyse de la mortalité tou­tes causes confondues, et aussi en considérant trois grandes catégories de causes de décès : les maladies transmissibles, les maladies non transmissibles et les causes externes. En limitant l’analyse aux adultes nés à Ouagadougou, nous avons constaté que le citadin pauvre fait face à une pénalité sanitaire considérable comparative­ment au moins pauvre, ce qui est conforme aux attentes basées sur la littérature existante. Les non-migrants riches font face à des risques plus faibles de décès pré­maturé dû aussi bien aux maladies transmissibles qu’aux maladies non transmissi­bles. Les adultes migrants quant à eux présentent des tendances très différentes qui faussent l’image globale des inégalités de santé dans la ville. Les migrants riches et les migrants vivant dans les quartiers formels courent un plus grand risque de décès de maladies non transmissibles. Ces résultats particuliers sont probablement dus à des effets de sélection liés à la migration, et peut-être aussi à des niveaux plus élevés d’exposition à des maladies non transmissibles par les migrants. Ils ap­pellent à une plus grande attention portée sur les effets de la migration lors d’étu­des sur les différences rurales-urbaines ou les inégalités sociales de santé en Afri­que sub-saharienne. Summary In the cities of less developed countries, while poorer residents are likely to be at greater risk of dying from communicable diseases and injuries, wealthier residents may suffer from a greater burden of non-communicable diseases. It remains thus unclear whether poorer African adult city dwellers are in worse health than their better-off counterparts. In this paper, we describe the social inequalities that characterize adult mortality (individuals aged 15 to 59) at the periphery of Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. Using data from the Ouagadougou Health and Demographic Surveillance System from 2009 to 2011, we test whether factors such as levels of education, poverty and informal settlement are related to risks of pre­mature deaths among adults. We conduct this analysis for all-cause mortality, and also considered three main categories of causes of death: communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and external causes. Restricting the analysis to adults born in Ouagadougou, we found that the urban poor face a considerable health penalty compared to the less poor, which is consistent with expectation based on existing literature. Wealthier non-migrants face relatively lower risks of premature death, from both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Adult migrants exhibit very different patterns of mortality, which distort the overall picture of health inequalities in the city. Wealthier adult migrants and migrants living in formal settlements face a greater risk of dying from non-communicable diseases. These particular patterns are probably due to selective in and/or out-migration, and maybe to greater levels of exposure to non-communicable diseases by migrants. These results call for more attention to the effects of migration when studying rural-urban and social differentials of health in Sub-Saharan Africa

Convergent consequences of parthenogenesis on stick insect genomes

International audienceThe shift from sexual reproduction to parthenogenesis has occurred repeatedly in animals, but how the loss of sex affects genome evolution remains poorly understood. We generated reference genomes for five independently evolved parthenogenetic species in the stick insect genus Timema and their closest sexual relatives. Using these references and population genomic data, we show that parthenogenesis results in an extreme reduction of heterozygosity and often leads to genetically uniform populations. We also find evidence for less effective positive selection in parthenogenetic species, suggesting that sex is ubiquitous in natural populations because it facilitates fast rates of adaptation. Parthenogenetic species did not show increased transposable element (TE) accumulation, likely because there is little TE activity in the genus. By using replicated sexual-parthenogenetic comparisons, our study reveals how the absence of sex affects genome evolution in natural populations, providing empirical support for the negative consequences of parthenogenesis as predicted by theory