More than a century of ecological studies have demonstrated the importance of demography in shaping spatial and temporal variation in population dynamics. Surprisingly, the impact of seasonal recruitment on infectious disease systems has received much less attention. Here, we present data encompassing 78 years of monthly natality in the USA, and reveal pronounced seasonality in birth rates, wit...

OBJECTIVE To assess the rates, timing and causes of neonatal deaths and the burden of stillbirths in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. We discuss the implications of our findings for neonatal interventions. METHODS We used verbal autopsy interviews to investigate 1048 neonatal deaths and stillbirths. FINDINGS There were 430 stillbirths reported, comprising 41% of all deaths in the sample. Of the ...

A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the weight status and the relationship of infant-feeding variables, birthweight and birth order with BMI in a group of Iranian children. Five hundred and eleven students of both sexes at the first grade in elementary schools (aged 7 years) were recruited randomly from all 19 educational districts of Tehran. Weights and heights of children and...

Using a sample of 540 siblings and twins from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, this study examines the relationship between the age at which men become biological fathers and their subsequent health. The analysis includes both between-family models that treat brothers as independent observations and within-family models that account for unobserved genetic and ear...

OBJECTIVE understanding the labour characteristics of women attempting vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) may suggest how to improve intrapartum management and may enhance success rates. Promoting VBAC is a relevant factor in decreasing overall caesarean section (c-section) rates. However, the labour processes of women attempting VBAC are not well investigated. The aim of this paper is to com...

on serial scans. The median age was 16 hours when PVH was first detected and 48 hours when PVH reached its maximum extent. Ventricular size at birth correlated with gestation. Progressive ventricular growth was seen after birth in infants both with and without PVH. Charts of normal ranges of ventricular size and head circumference were drawn up from birth to 10 weeks of age. All infants with PV...

OBJECTIVE To test a multifaceted collaborative quality improvement intervention designed to promote evidence based surfactant treatment for preterm infants of 23-29 weeks' gestation. DESIGN Cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS 114 neonatal intensive care units (which treated 6039 infants of 23-29 weeks gestation born in 2001). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Process of care...

Working women who have a first birth at a later age have higher wages on average than early child bearers. When this fact is combined with declining fecundity by age, women face a difficult tradeoff when choosing the timing of their first birth. This paper seeks to understand the sources of the delay premium by studying differences in observed characteristics and behaviors among women with diff...