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"This paper describes the historical evolution of five populations and analyzes the circumstances under which data on maternal and paternal orphanhood of couples at the moment of marriage were collected and compiled." The data, which concern historical populations in Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina, are used to construct life tables for male and female adults. Consideration is given to mortality differentials by sex. (summary in ENG), (excerpt)

In infant mortality estimates, using the Coale-Trussell procedure with information from 2 successive population censuses of a country, reveals differences in the levels for the overlapping years of periods. This paper deal with this problem using the 1974 and 1982 censuses of Ecuador. The contribution of his analysis consists in demonstrating that infant mortality in a given year--estimated from a specific age group--is a weighted average between zero mortality--women declaring no deaths among their children and mortality with a value different from zero--women declaring some child dead. The weighing values are the age structure of women according to the condition of having dead children and corrected by the mean parity of the corresponding age group. Looking at the structure--women with or without dead children--of both censuses, a strong increase in the proportion of women without dead children occurred in 1982 as compared with the proportion in 1974. In order to eliminate this lack of comparability a reweighing was introduced in the 1982 information. New estimates were obtained, and these are much closer to the estimates obtained from the 1974 census.

"The paper analyzes some problems related to the census measurement of internal migration according to the three following aspects: The lack of agreement between the proposed objectives and the type of question made; questionnaire design errors and enumeration errors; and inadequate data elaboration." The geographic focus is on Latin America. Problems concerning data on place of birth or place of previous residence and how these can affect the calculation of migration trends are considered. (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"This paper presents six indirect techniques for estimating the degree of death coverage as applied to vital statistics information in Venezuela between 1960 and 1982, collected by two public institutions, namely, the 'Oficina Central de Estadistica e Informatica' (OCEI) and the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance (MSAS).... The results show remarkable improvements in the death registry coverage for both institutions, that amount to 97 or 98 per cent at the beginning of the 80's. Nevertheless, great differences can be observed between them regarding both structure and volume of deaths by sex and age." Among the problems discussed are the impact of immigration and errors in age reporting. (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"A procedure is described to obtain an age distribution of emigrant surviving children from the reports of such children obtained from women by a census or survey. A simple form of the procedure, requiring a minimum of calculation, is shown to work almost as well as the more elaborate form, and is recommended for most uses. "These new procedures, explicitly introducing an age model of migration, yield age distributions which are substantially different from, and probably more realistic than those obtained through the use of model fertility and mortality schedules alone.... The age distributions of migrant children [in Colombia] as obtained in this paper are compared with those obtained by Somoza.... The procedure described here produces a total almost 10 percent higher because it shifts the age distribution of the migrant children towards higher ages with lower proportions of surviving mothers." (summary in ENG), (excerpt)

"During the latter part of 1986, national probability sample surveys of women of reproductive ages were carried out in... Peru and the Dominican Republic. These surveys were made as part of the Demographic Health Surveys project (DHS). In each country, one survey was conducted with the standard core questionnaire developed for DHS; the other survey was based on an experimental questionnaire. The major difference between the two questionnaires is the inclusion in the experimental one of a monthly calendar, which records pregnancies, contraceptive use, reasons for contraceptive discontinuation, breastfeeding, post-partum amenorrhea, post-partum abstinence, women's employment and place of residence for the period 1981-1986. This paper presents results from the first stage of the analysis of the Peruvian data: a comparison of basic characteristics of the two samples and an assessment of the completeness of reporting of recent births and infant and child deaths, i.e., a comparison of information in the truncated and full birth histories." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"This paper analyzes the problems that arise when infant mortality estimates are derived through the probabilities of dying obtained from the application of the Coale-Trussell technique to the proportion of children deceased according to age of mother derived from census or survey data. These problems arise because this operation requires the acceptance of a mortality model by age." The author outlines "some criteria for the selection of the model through the use of information from Vital Statistics and surveys. Finally, it is stated that an alternative for the study of infant mortality trends is the selection of an indicator less affected by the mortality structure by age...." The problems are illustrated using data from selected countries in Latin America. (summary in ENG), (excerpt)