Voluntary childlessness among American men and women in the late 1980's.

Most studies of childlessness in the United States have relied on unrepresentative, opportunistic samples collected in a variety of ways. Thus, the relationship of various correlates to childlessness is not well known. Some studies have focused on demographic variables, but have not examined attitudinal factors associated with childlessness--something the opportunistic samples have been able to do. In this paper we examine both attitudinal and demographic factors associated with childlessness in the United States. The data used in this paper are from the National Survey of Families and Households collected in 1987 and 1988. The data set includes both demographic data, perceived advantages and disadvantages of having children, and attitudinal data about related social issues. Overall, the rate of voluntary childlessness was not high. Only 3.5 per cent of the men and 2.8 per cent of the women reported that they were childless and did not expect to have children. Only one category of people (unmarried men and women over the age of 35) had rates that exceeded ten per cent. A combined variable of age and marital status was the best predictor of childlessness. A scale of reasons or justifications for having children was the next best predictor. In addition, attendance at religious services, number of hours the respondents desired to work and education (for women only) were related to childlessness. Those who scored highly on measures of support for traditional families and support of extended families also tended to have lower rates of childlessness. Occupational status, religious denomination, and race, on the other hand, were not significantly related to childlessness. Measures of gender equality, religious fundamentalism, and support for mothers working were also not related to childlessness.     

Self-Reported Substantial 1-Year Weight Change Among Men and Women in the United States

Population-based data have not been readily available on relatively short-term changes in weight. Therefore, we sought to determine the nature of self-reported substantial (> 10%) weight change over one year in a representative sample of the US population which participated in the 1989 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Across all ages, a larger proportion of women than men reported both weight loss as well as weight gain of any amount (18.9% vs. 16.1% for weight loss and 20.0% vs. 16.1% for weight gain). In sex-specific logistic regression analyses, significant risk factors common to both sexes for substantial weight loss included divorced/separated marital status, smoking, increased number of blood pressure checks, increased BMI (body mass index) and increased number of bed days. Black race reduced the risk of weight loss for both men and women. Sex-specific risk factors for weight loss in men only were widowhood or never married marital status, while increasing age was a protective factor in women only. Concerning weight gain > 10% over the past year, increased number of blood pressure checks and having one or more diabetic parents were significant risk factors among both men and women; while never being married, increased age, BMI, and education exerted a protective effect in both sexes. For women only, risk factors for weight gain included black race, increased number of contacts with a health professional, and being unemployed. Intention to lose weight was associated with both weight gain and weight loss in both sexes, although it did not serve as a confounder in any of these relationships. A greater likelihood of substantial weight loss among women relative to men was diminished for persons with higher BMI, higher number of blood pressure checks, being widowed, divorced or separated, and intention to lose weight. A greater likelihood of substantial weight gain among women relative to men was diminished for persons with low BMI. The results of this cross-sectional study of weight change, involving a one-year follow-up period, generally correspond with the results obtained by longitudinal studies involving a longer follow-up.     

Intelligence and Disability Pension in Swedish Men and Women Followed from Childhood to Late Middle Age

Objective

To investigate the association between intelligence and disability pension due to mental, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and substance-use disorders among men and women, and to assess the role of childhood social factors and adulthood work characteristics.

Methods

Two random samples of men and women born 1948 and 1953 (n = 10 563 and 9 434), and tested for general intelligence at age 13, were followed in registers for disability pension until 2009. Physical and psychological strains in adulthood were assessed using job exposure matrices. Associations were examined using Cox proportional hazard regression models, with increases in rates reported as hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) per decrease in stanine intelligence.

Results

In both men and women increased risks were found for disability pension due to all causes, musculoskeletal disorder, mental disorder other than substance use, and cardiovascular disease as intelligence decreased. Increased risk was also found for substance use disorder in men. In multivariate models, HRs were attenuated after controlling for pre-school plans in adolescence, and low job control and high physical strain in adulthood. In the fully adjusted model, increased HRs remained for all causes (male HR 1.11, 95%CI 1.07–1.15, female HR 1.06, 95%CI 1.02–1.09) and musculoskeletal disorder (male HR 1.16, 95%CI 1.09–1.24, female HR 1.08, 95%CI 1.03–1.14) during 1986 to 2009.

Conclusion

Relatively low childhood intelligence is associated with increased risk of disability pension due to musculoskeletal disorder in both men and women, even after adjustment for risk factors for disability pension measured over the life course.     

Ultrasound Measurements of Visceral and Subcutaneous Abdominal Thickness to Predict Abdominal Adiposity Among Older Men and Women

Accurate measures of visceral and abdominal subcutaneous fat are essential for investigating the pathophysiology of obesity. Classical anthropometric measures such as waist and hip circumference cannot distinguish between these two fat depots. Direct imaging methods such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are restricted in large‐scale studies due to practical and ethical issues. We aimed to establish whether ultrasound is a valid alternative method to MRI for the quantitative assessment of abdominal fat depots in older individuals. The study population comprised 74 white individuals (41 men and 33 women, aged 67–76 years) participating in the Hertfordshire Birth Cohort Physical Activity trial. Anthropometry included height, weight, waist and hip circumferences. Abdominal fat was measured by ultrasound in two compartments: visceral fat defined as the depth from the peritoneum to the lumbar spine; and subcutaneous fat defined as the depth from the skin to the abdominal muscles and compared to reference measures by MRI (10‐mm single‐slice image). Ultrasound measures were positively correlated with MRI measures of visceral and subcutaneous fat (visceral: r = 0.82 and r = 0.80 in men and women, respectively; subcutaneous: r = 0.63 and 0.68 in men and women, respectively). In multiple regression models, the addition of ultrasound measures significantly improved the prediction of visceral fat and subcutaneous fat in both men and women over and above the contribution of standard anthropometric variables. In conclusion, ultrasound is a valid method to estimate visceral fat in epidemiological studies of older men and women when MRI and computed tomography are not feasible.     

Asymmetries in the Friendship Preferences and Social Styles of Men and Women

Several hypotheses on the form and function of sex differences in social behaviors were tested. The results suggest that friendship preferences in both sexes can be understood in terms of perceived reciprocity potential—capacity and willingness to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship. Divergent social styles may in turn reflect trade-offs between behaviors selected to maintain large, functional coalitions in men and intimate, secure relationships in women. The findings are interpreted from a broad socio-relational framework of the types of behaviors that facilitate selective advertisement and investment of reciprocity potential across individuals and within groups of men and women.

Infectious Urethritis in Men and Women: Diagnosis and Treatment

Acute and recurrent infectious urethritis in men and women is commonly seen by physicians. Since specific therapy varies widely with the type of urethritis present, the proper diagnosis must be clearly established if curative drug therapy is to be selected. It is valuable, therefore, to review the diagnosis and therapy of the various forms of infectious urethritis that are recognized today in both men and women.     

Age and Seasonal Variation in Serum Testosterone Concentration Among Men

Serum testosterone concentrations from 4.462 military veterans, ages 32-44, were examined for age and seasonal variation. Testosterone concentrations were assayed from a single serum sample from each subject. All samples were drawn before breakfast, at about 8:00 a.m., from subjects recruited over a 16-month study period. Mean levels declined with age (P less than .001), from 864 ng/dl at age 32 to 602 ng/dl at age 44. Mean levels also varied with month of testing (P less than .01), with a seasonal peak in December (the seasonal peak was in November for men in their early 30s). The age effect was greater than the seasonal effect. Both effects may bear upon behaviour and should be treated as possible sources of error in studies of testosterone.     

Ranch Women and Men on Both Sides of the Border

Hell on Horses and Women . Alice Marriott
Charrería Mexicana: An Equestrian Folk Tradition . Kathleen Mullen Sands     

Changes in Waist Circumference and Mortality in Middle-Aged Men and Women

Background

Waist circumference (WC) adjusted for body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with mortality, but the association with changes in WC is less clear. We investigated the association between changes in WC and mortality in middle-aged men and women, and evaluated the influence from concurrent changes in BMI.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Data on 26,625 healthy men and women from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health study was analyzed. WC and BMI were assessed in 1993–97 and in 1999–02. Information on mortality was obtained by linkage to the Danish central Person Register. Hazard ratios (HR) were estimated with Cox regression models. During 6.7 years of follow-up, 568 and 361 deaths occurred among men and women, respectively. Changes in WC were positively associated with mortality (HR per 5 cm for the sexes combined  = 1.09 (1.02∶1.16) with adjustment for covariates, baseline WC, BMI and changes in BMI), whereas changes in BMI were inversely associated with mortality (HR per kg/m2 for the sexes combined  = 0.91 (0.86, 0.97) with adjustment for covariates, baseline WC, BMI and changes in WC). Associations between changes in WC and mortality were not notably different in sub-groups stratified according to changes in BMI, baseline WC or when smokers or deaths occurring within the first years of follow-up were excluded.

Conclusions/Significance

Changes in WC were positively associated with mortality in healthy middle-aged men and women throughout the range of concurrent changes in BMI. These findings suggest a need for development of prevention and treatment strategies targeted against redistribution of fat mass towards the abdominal region.     

The Clinic and Elsewhere: Illness,Sexuality, and Social Experience Among Young African American Men in Baltimore,Maryland

This paper is concerned with how disclosure becomes self-production for young adults within the setting of the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic. The STD clinic is a special medical environment where the process of disclosure is not just a way of accessing treatment; it is also a process through which illness, sexuality, and social experience become entangled in telling. Illness according to medical categories is reshaped in the social world, bringing a different set of criteria to bear on the definition of illness. The concern we raise regards how meaning is secured simultaneously through the experience of illness and social relations. Using data from a series of clinic-based ethnographic interviews, we examine the narratives of three young men. Together, the narratives demonstrate the interrelatedness of illness and self-production in various forms. In one case the tension between interpersonal violence and self-preservation is central. In another, the place of knowledge in family relationships renders the entire picture of the social unstable. The paper signals a number of issues absent in clinical and epidemiological depictions of vulnerability, particularly in the context of the urban United States.     

Lipolysis in Intraabdorninal Adipose Tissues of Obese Women and Men

Intraabdominal fat in humans is located in two major depots, the omental and mesenteric. We compared basal and stimulated lipolysis in adipose tissue from these two depots and the subcutaneous abdominal depot of obese women and men. Omental fat cells of women are smaller and have lower rates of basal lipolysis than in men. Basal Iipolysis rates are significantly higher in subcutaneous than intraabdominal adipose tissues of both genders. In men, the incremental lipolytic response to norepinephrine is significantly greater in both intraabdominal fat depots than in the subcutaneous fat, while in women tlie response of tlie mesenteric is lower than tlie omental. In women, but not men, responsiveness to tlie beta agonist isoproterenol is also increased in omental tissue. Thus, in women, omental and mesenteric adipose tissues show distinctly different metabolic properties which may moderate the impact of intraabdominal obesity.     

Gendered Missions: Women and Men in Missionary Discourse and Practice

Gendered Missions: Women and Men in Missionary Discourse and Practice. Mary Taylor Huber and Nancy C. Lutkehaus. eds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999. 252 pp.