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This study explores the relationship of women's role and status in society to their marriage timing in five non-industrial Asian countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia). The role and status of women, conceptualized from acquired characteristics such as education and occupation before marriage, determines the largest degree of variance explained in ti ming of marriage. Even after socio-economic and ethno-religious variables are statistically controlled, the net effects of women's education and occupation on age at marriage are found to be positive and substantial in magnitude. Additional evidence indicates that country differences in female age at marriage are also conditioned by the stage of a country's socio-economic transition.

SummaryFamily planning knowledge, attitude and practice surveys typically assess respondents' reproductive attitudes and intentions to use contraception. Longitudinal observation of individual respondents nevertheless shows that such questions are not strongly predictive of subsequent behaviour. This study examines 3 years' data which show that a set of such responses to questions are nevertheless substantially superior in predicting behaviour than any single indicator. Thus statistical techniques which bring into account the apparent multidimensionality of contraceptive motivation can greatly improve upon the estimation of future practice of family planning in a population.

This book presents a broad range of statistical techniques to address emerging needs in the field of repeated measures. It also provides a comprehensive overview of extensions of generalized linear models for the bivariate exponential family of distributions, which represent a new development in analysing repeated measures data. The demand for statistical models for correlated outcomes has grown rapidly recently, mainly due to presence of two types of underlying associations: associations between outcomes, and associations between explanatory variables and outcomes. The book systematically addresses key problems arising in the modelling of repeated measures data, bearing in mind those factors that play a major role in estimating the underlying relationships between covariates and outcome variables for correlated outcome data. In addition, it presents new approaches to addressing current challenges in the field of repeated measures and models based on conditional and joint probabilities. Markov models of first and higher orders are used for conditional models in addition to conditional probabilities as a function of covariates. Similarly, joint models are developed using both marginal-conditional probabilities as well as joint probabilities as a function of covariates. In addition to generalized linear models for bivariate outcomes, it highlights extended semi-parametric models for continuous failure time data and their applications in order to include models for a broader range of outcome variables that researchers encounter in various fields. The book further discusses the problem of analysing repeated measures data for failure time in the competing risk framework, which is now taking on an increasingly important role in the field of survival analysis, reliability and actuarial science. Details on how to perform the analyses are included in each chapter and supplemented with newly developed R packages and functions along with SAS codes and macro/IML. It is a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students and other users of statistical techniques for analysing repeated measures data

SummaryThe effects of family sex composition on fertility preferences and behaviour during the period 1977–88 are examined using longitudinal data from Matlab, Bangladesh. The sex composition of living children was found to be systematically related to fertility preferences and behaviour, with a higher number of sons at each family size associated with a higher percentage of women wanting no more children, a higher percentage currently using contraception, and lower subsequent fertility. However, the highest percentage wanting no more children, using contraception and having lowest subsequent fertility was found among women who already had one daughter as well as at least one son. The effects of sex preference on fertility preferences and behaviour were measured using an index developed by Arnold (1985). The results suggest that while sex preference remained largely unchanged during the study period, its effect on contraceptive use declined and its impact on actual fertility remained modest and fairly stable.

SummaryA study in Bangladesh showed that couples who lost a child often stopped practising contraception in order to have another child. Logistic regression analysis revealed that contraceptive continuation was related to maternal age, parity, husband's education and the sex of the last child.

SummaryThis paper discusses polygynous marriages in rural Bangladesh, using marital status and birth registration data from the Demographic Surveillance System of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, for the period 1975–79. Of all the marriages recorded during this period about 5% were polygynous. To identify the women polygynously married, 1974 census data of the DSS area were used. The difference in age at marriage between the polygynous groom and his subsequent wife was 15 years on average. The socioeconomic indicators studied were education, occupation and area of dwelling space. In general, these indicators differentially influence polygynous marriage. The fertility differentials between women in monogamous marriages were significantly higher than between the women in polygynous unions.

Implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR) system increases efficiency of health services, quality of care and patient satisfaction. Successful implementation depends on many factors, one of which is how users respond to the new system. We studied medical receptionists' appraisal of the newly implemented EMR system in primary healthcare centres in Kuwait. Four hundred receptionists were selected randomly from different healthcare centres and asked to complete a user interaction satisfaction questionnaire relating to their experience of the new system. The response rate was 80.5%. A large majority of the respondents considered the system to be flexible (83%), easy (89%), and satisfying (81%). However, more than one third of the respondents (36%) found the system inadequate. Bivariate and multivariate analyses found age, typing ability, ease of data entry and computer error as significant correlates with overall user response. These findings relating to users' reactions to various aspects of the EMR should assist policymakers to recognise the causes of dissatisfaction with the EMR among medical receptionists at health centre clinics that may adversely affect its successful implementation and regular use, as well as the quality of care provided by the clinics. In addition, the findings provide information to assist the development of guidelines for future implementation of the EMR system at the secondary healthcare level.