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This paper introduces the concept of the ‘age-profile’, which represents the proportions of cohort populations surviving from birth to a given year. Life tables for Australia and three-dimensional diagrams based on these data are used to illustrate the difference between the ‘age-profile’ values for a given year and the transverse survival values for the same year. The last part of the paper describes areas in which the ‘age-profile’ might be used with reference to its value in representing the experience of cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The number of Northern Ireland women obtaining abortions in England has risen sharply from 36 for April–December 1968 to 775 in 1972. The figure for 1973 when it becomes available will probably be about 1000.The sample on which this paper is based consisted of 522 women who between January 1971 and August 1973 sought an abortion through the Ulster Pregnancy Advisory Association. The sample amounted to about one-quarter of all residents of Northern Ireland obtaining an abortion in England over the same period and was therefore not a random one. It was, however, fully representative for age and marital status and was thought to be generally reliable.The 522 women included 108 Roman Catholics, who were therefore under-represented in the sample compared with the general population at risk.The 108 Roman Catholics included 72.2% of single women, compared with 65.1% of single Protestants; they were also younger, 42.6% coming with the age group 20–24 years compared with 33.4% of the Protestants, and a higher proportion, 46.3% compared with 30.9%, had stayed at school to the age of 17 or 18 years. Only 15.7% of the Catholics had been told of the UPAA by their own doctors, compared with 45.7% of the Protestants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A recent paper published in this journal (Poole & Kuhn, 1973) has reported that ‘a relatively large family appeared to be no impediment to the educational achievements of middle-class children’. This finding, however, is based upon an analysis which fell into a relatively unknown statistical trap. Poole & Kuhn are only the latest in a long line of victims of this trap and some of their predecessors are reviewed below. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is well established that, in general, pregnancies at advanced maternal ages or of advanced birth order are at greater risk of aborting spontaneously. It does not follow that each individual woman, as she proceeds through her reproductive life, becomes steadily more prone to abort. The present paper attempts to analyse evidence on how individual women's abortion probabilities vary during their reproductive lives. Statistical examination of the data suggests that:1. A spontaneous abortion in a given birth rank is more likely than a live birth in the same rank to be followed by a further pregnancy. Abortion-prone women have more pregnancies than other women.2. There is no significant overall tendency for spontaneous abortions to appear early or late in sibships even when account is taken of the reproductive compensation reported above.3. Pathological examination of spontaneously aborted fetuses suggests that more (perhaps many more) than 10% of spontaneous abortions (e.g. those associated with trisomy and maternal isoimmunization) are causally associated with advanced maternal age or birth order.4. The mean maternal age of spontaneously aborted fetuses which fail to grow in culture is higher than that of fetuses which are successfully cultured.One would infer:A. (from suggestions 1 and 2 above) that reproductive compensation (rather than a real birth order effect) is a major reason why abortion rates are higher at higher maternal ages and higher birth ranks;B. (from suggestions 2 and 3 above) that there must be another group of abortions, roughly equal in number, which are causally associated with low maternal age or early birth order.Little is known about this second group of reproductive casualties (those associated with low birth order or maternal age), but it is suggested that some have CNS malformations. I have made similar suggestions in regard to stillbirth and neonatal death. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports the results of a sample survey of ZPG members undertaken in April 1971 to ascertain if any changes had occurred in membership attributes since the first survey in September 1970 and to investigate additional characteristics. Age, education, religion and student/ non-student status are considered in relation to length of membership of ZPG. Income, political activities, intended family size and opinions about ideal population size and population control are also examined, including attitudes towards vasectomy and abortion.It is concluded that, among members of voluntary organizations, demographic factors such as age, education, religion and sex do not possess a causal relationship with social behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the first study of vasectomized men in Latin America; it is based on personal interviews with 172 men who had undergone the operation at least 3 months previously.The majority of the men chose to have the operation relatively late in life (38·9 years), after they had had a large number of children (5·9 living). Men from all education and occupation levels were represented in the sample; about 25% were practising Catholics. Many cited the effectiveness of vasectomy as a major factor in their decision. More than one-half reported at least one failure with other methods. Principal original sources of information about vasectomy for the majority were the mass media. Most reported that their sexual activity had remained unchanged or had improved since the operation and expressed satisfaction with the results of the operation.(Summary in Spanish, p. 505.) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The data in this paper are drawn from interviews with a probability sample of 2652 once-married women under the age of 60 currently living with their husbands in 1971 in metropolitan Melbourne. Although drawing from other material from the 2½ hr interviews the discussion concentrates upon the family size ideals of these wives. In addition to the customary measures of ideal family size, new measures of the upper and lower limits of acceptable family size are described, together with the reactions of the whole sample to a wide range of specified family sizes and the reasons for accepting or rejecting them. It is shown that the eventual achievement of zero population growth will almost certainly depend upon the two-child family becoming the norm for the great majority of couples, since childless or one-child marriages are desired by only 2% of couples. Currently, however, 20% of wives consider two-child families to be undesirably small. The marked religious, country of origin and educational differentials in acceptance of the two-child family are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper reports an attempt to use the Pickford-Nicolson anomaloscope on an unselected sample of all art students in 1 year's intake in a School of Art, and to compare their colour vision with that of an unselected control group of non-art students.There is evidence that male first year School of Art students match a yellow with a mixture of red and green containing slightly more green than the male control group of the same age. It would seem possible that there is an age effect for women matching green and blue with turquoise whereby the older women required more green in the match.Apart from these two points there appears to be no significant difference between the groups studied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In accordance with JBS policy, Mrs Poole was offered the opportunity of replying to Mr Bytheway, for simultaneous publication with his paper. Her comment, which has been seen by Mr Bytheway, appears below. So far as JBS is concerned, the discussion is now closed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]