Sex differentials in cardiovascular mortality: an ecological analysis.

The objective of this study is to explain spatial variations in cardiovascular mortality by sex. Recognizing the interdependence of the various dimensions of the 'ecological complex', it is maintained that spatial variations in cardiovascular mortality by sex and the sex differentials in cardiovascular mortality are the consequences of environmental, sustenance organization, health technology, and demographic factors. The test of the model is based on U.S. county level cardiovascular mortality data for ages 25-65 for the period 1970-1980. The most distinctive feature of the results is that environment has the greatest impact on sex differentials in cardiovascular mortality followed by sustenance organization. In this regard, socioeconomic status is shown to be the single most important variable in explaining cardiovascular mortality rates for both sexes in most community types. The effect of health technology is not significant, and increased availability of health manpower and facilities are often found in conjunction with higher rates of cardiovascular mortality for both sexes. The results of this study confirm the importance of programs directed toward altering the basic environment and sustenance organization structures of communities rather than other ecological components such as health technology.

Components of change in the residential concentration of the elderly population: 1950-1975.

Changes in the absolute and relative size of the elderly population within metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas are decomposed into the underlying demographic components for three time periods: 1950 to 1960, 1960 to 1970, 1970 to 1975. Specifically, we examine the components of net migration and natural increase of those aged 0 to 64 and those 64 or older. Using published migration estimates for the U.S., this study demonstrates that elderly migration has represented an increasingly important component of the absolute growth of the elderly population within nonmetropolitan areas and a corresponding decline in large SMSAs. Although "aging-in-place" was a dominant component of change in he elderly percentage irrespective of residence, we show that the demographic components of the young also exercise an important and often overlooked effect on the aging process. Most prominent was the slowing of relative aging in remote nonmetropolitan areas, due largely to the post-1970 changeover from net outmigration to net inmigration of those less than 65 years of age.

Residential mobility and living arrangements among the elderly: changing patterns in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.

Using data from the 1960 and 1970 Public Use Samples and the 1975 Current Population Survey, this study examines the relationship between residential mobility and living arrangements among the elderly. Particular attention is given to temporal change in that relationship as well as to metropolitan-nonmetropolitan differentials. Persons with living arrangements indicative of greater dependency (i.e., persons who are other relatives of household heads) evidence greater mobility than those with greater independence (i.e., primary individuals and heads or spouses of heads). Results further suggest that outmigration from nonmetropolitan areas is particularly selective of those elderly in dependent type living arrangements. Over time, there is also a noticeable increase in migration of heads or spouses, especially from metropolitan to nonmetropolitan environments. It appears that temporal shifts in living arrangements partly account for changes in residential mobility within and between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.

Validation of an inferential approach for the measurement of illegitimacy.

An inferential model which utilizes surname comparisons in inferring legitimacy status is developed and validated. Criterion validation is employed to assess the level of agreement between the inferential approach and the conventional reporting procedure. Data for the analysis are based on a sample of birth certificates contained in files of the National Center for Health Statistics for calendar year 1973. Results indicate that despite excessive error within some categories of the control variables, the inferential method is generally adequate to obtain reliable estimates of illegitimacy.

Labor force participation of working mothers and family formation: some further evidence.

This paper offers additional insight and evidence on the well-documented inverse relationship between female employment and fertility. Interviews with 388 working mothers from a probability sample in Robeson County, North Carolina, provide the data for testing the hypothesized relationships. Generally, the results indicate that lower fertility, lower desires and expectations, and earlier use of birth control are associated with work before the first birth and with employment of the longest duration. The timing of the first birth was not differentiated by variations in work experience. The results are conditional in that the relationships hold more for whites than for blacks or Indians.

Variations in value orientations and fertility behavior.

PIP: A test of a hypothesis regarding attitudes toward nature, time, familial relations, activity, and sex was undertaken. The hypothesis was: wives who have a modern orientation to any 1 of these items will expect a smaller number of children, will have smaller proportion of unplanned births, and will have lower fertility than wives who have traditional orientation. Data on which the study was based were obtained from a project on family formation and values conducted in Lexington, Kentucky, during the spring of 1968. Of the 403 eligible respondents (resident white nonfarm females who had a legitimate live birth in Fayette County, Kentucky during the period January 1, 1967, to December 31, 1967, 275 were interviewed. Results indicated 3 patterns: 1) sex orientation is not related to fertility expectations, or, at best, is weakly associated; 2) the sex orientation scale does not discriminate birth control effectiveness as predicted; and 3) sex orientation is associated with actual fertility, but in the opposite direction from that hypothesized. Women who have a modern orientation to sex have larger families than women with a traditional orientation, even though the former are more effective family planners. Results indicated that time orientation is not directly related to fertility behavior while the activity orientation is related to fertility behavior but in the opposite direction from that hypothesized. The nature and relational orientations provided some support for the hypothesized relation between modern orientations and low fertility behavior.^ieng