Title: Agents affecting health of mother and child in a rural area of Kenya. XVIII. Fertility, mortality and migration in 1975-1978.
Abstract: The results reported here are based on age-specific rates and are, therefore, more sensitive and meaningful as indicators of fertility and mortality than the crude rates mentioned in the previous article. The results confirm that, compared to world standards, the study area is characterized by a high level of fertility and a fairly low level of mortality. Fertility and mortality are, however, lower in the study area in comparison to Kenya as a whole. Another characteristic is high population mobility which is of two types: temporary migration of absent members of the population, and permanent in- and out-migration.This demographic study is a continuation of the 1st study and focuses on data pertaining to age-specific fertility and mortality rates between 1975 and 1978. Epidemiological and demographic data were obtained by means of fortnightly visits by male fieldworkers to the households in the Machakos District. Total fertility rate of the area was 7260/1000 women or 7.3 children per woman; fertility was constant during the study period. Infant mortality varied from 41 to 62, averaging 49.1. Male mortality was higher in all age groups than female mortality. In-migration was somewhat more common (78/1000 annually) than out-migration (71/1000), with incidence of both types higher for women than for men. This was attributed to the fact that many women leave their parental homes during the years after marriage or after the birth of a child. Other reasons were separation from spouse and divorce. Compared to the world standards, the Machakos area has a high level of fertility and a fairly low level of mortality; compared to Kenya as a whole, Machakos has low fevels of fertility and mortality.
Publication Year: 1980
Publication Date: 1980-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['pubmed']
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