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During the 1960's and continuing into the 1970's, the charge that birth control and abortion are integral elements of a white genocidal conspiracy directed against Afro--Americans has been heard with increasing frequency and stridency in black communities. The genocide theory finds greatest acceptance among spokesmen for black nationalist and black revolutionary groups, but suspicion of family planning programs is not limited to them. An analysis of black leadership opinion on birth control is provided in this paper. The black debate over the desirability of population limitation is traced back approximately fifty years. It began with a dispute between those blacks who believed that in sheer numbers there was strength and those blacks, such as W. E. B. DuBois, who argued that among human races, as among vegetables, quality and not quantity counted. An appreciation of the sexual exploitation of the chattel slave in the ante-bellum period, which did not end with emancipation, is also essential to an understanding of the roots and rationale of the genocide notion which arc the foci of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En conclusion, we may revert to the questions raised earlier in this paper, and see whether we can attempt answers to them. The first question was whether the rapid rate of population growth in the last few decades has led the countries of the Caribbean to adopt or try to adopt family planning measures to control this rate of growth. The survey of the changes in attitudes and activity in most of the Caribbean, as outlined above, leaves no doubt that, taking the region as a whole, there have been considerable strides forward in recent years as regards family planning information and practice. The traditional sources of opposition have considerably reduced their antagonism. Excellent examples are the attitude and action of the Roman Catholic church which, while retaining its opposition in principle to certain forms of birth control, has accepted the idea of planned and responsible parenthood, and is represented in the body responsible for organizing the national family planning program in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and Curacao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the quality assessment literature, presents a study which compares five different methods of assessing quality of care, and proposes policy recommendations. Results are: (1) Most quality assessment issues are a century old. (2) The results of assessment of quality of care are dependent on the method used; therefore, more methodologic research is needed. (3) The use of lists of criteria, concerning what a physician does, to assess quality of care could result in decreased efficiency in the health system by requiring the performance of' ineffective procedures. (4) it is not certain that examination of the level of care rendered will increase the health Level of the population; therefore, any national program which assesses quality of care must be prospectively evaluated. (5) A quality assessment system must be concerned with both the population who received services at the institution, and the population who did not but for whom the institution is responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Demography (Springer Nature) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Demography (Springer Nature) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents news and announcements related to the field of sociology that appeared in the February 1967 issue of the journal "American Sociologist." American Orthopsychiatric Association will be holding its 44th annual meeting on March 20-23, 1967 in Washington, D.C. The American Public Health Association has invited contributed papers for the Medical Care Section Program of its 95th annual meeting. The Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, University of Arkansas, and Arkansas State Rehabilitation Service offers a symposium on "Effective Interpersonal Relationships that Produce Behavior Change." The Department of the Army has established a Personnel Research Division within the Directorate of Personnel Studies and Research. Association of Specialist Libraries has formed a Criminology Group to bring together those concerned with documentation in the field of criminology. The Sociological Consultants Group of North Attlehoro, Massachusetts, an interdisciplinary firm of behavioral scientists is providing research and consultation services for the analysis of human behavior for industrial, commercial, and civic purposes.

The article examines the methodology of the Pakistan approach to family planning evaluation, the validity of the method and its usefulness in program evaluation within Pakistan, as well as elsewhere. Pakistan, like most other developing nations that embark on a large-scale family planning program, lacks the machinery to measure fertility changes accurately. The civil registration system produces totally inadequate data, and vital statistics collected on a sample basis may not reflect small or short-run changes in fertility. In brief, the Pakistan approach to program evaluation is to translate reported program activity into couple years of protection (CYP) and then to translate couple years protection into births prevented. The concept of CYP in the Pakistan family planning program is disarmingly simple. It attempts to measure the joint impact of all program methods in terms of the length of time a woman is protected against the risk of conception through her or her husband's adoption of family planning.

The article presents information about various activities taking place in several organizations. According to a snippet, the American Society of Criminology is seeking broader membership and interaction with criminologists in Central and South America. Accordingly, its next annual meeting will be held in Caracas, Venezuela during the week beginning November 19, 1972. According to another snippet, the Medical Care section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) suggests that interested authors of papers for the next annual meeting of APHA may obtain standard abstract forms from Dr. D. Brian Heller, Research and Development, Blue Cross Association.

The article presents news and announcements from the field of sociology that appeared in the February 1, 1967 issue of the journal "The American Sociologist." The University of Chicago offers specialized training in the field of Adult Development and Aging to doctoral students in sociology. Special emphasis is placed on the social and psychological problems of middle age and old age through a seminar in Adulthood and Old Age. The System Development Corporation (SDC) announces the institution of a Postdoctoral Resident Research Fellowship Program in the mathematical, information processing, and social sciences. Department of Medical Care Organization of the School of Public Health, The University of Michigan, announces the availability of fellowships for a program of study leading to the Ph.D. degree in medical care organization. The Office of Education has established the Educational Research Information Center (ERIC), a national information system designed to serve the educational research community by making available to any user reliable, current educational research and research-related materials.

Improvement is required in the theoretical bases of health planning in order for needed advances to occur in health planning practice. Four major planning strategies are utilized in other public policy sectors: the rational, the incremental, the mixed scanning and the radical strategies. All four strategies are potentially useful in health planning and their impact is suggested in a health planning situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A goal of publicly subsidized family planning programs in the United States is to prevent unwanted births, and the primary means being used to achieve this goal is to increase coverage with physician-administered contraception, with priority being given to persons from low-income families. We analyzed data from families living in low-income neighborhoods to determine whether that means would contribute to that goal, and if so, how much unwanted fertility might be decreased through increased coverage with physician-administered methods. The results indicate that increased coverage with those methods would decrease unwanted fertility by 80 percent (79 percent among blacks, 83 percent among whites). Increasing the ratio of sterilization to pill and TUD makes the effect of the increased coverage even more dramatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If different groups of people in a low-income society save at different average rates, a program of birth control may affect the aggregate rate of saving by changing the relative shares of income accruing to these groups. A model is outlined in which this process occurs. The only group that saves is profit recipients; peasants and secondary sector employees consume all their income. A decline in fertility leads to a lower demand for food and a lower price of food. This results in a lower money supply price of labor in the secondary sector, and hence greater profits and greater saving. On the other hand, a fertility decline may eventually produce a higher real standard of living among rural workers, hence a higher supply price of secondary sector labor, lower profits and lower saving. These effects are investigated in a simulation of Mexican economic growth with (a) constant high fertility and (b) a declining birth rate such as might occur if a successful national birth control program were instituted. The birth control program results in a higher rate of aggregate saving over the first several decades, and eventually a lower rate of saving once a higher standard of living has been attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the awareness sources and stages in the adoption of specific contraceptives. There is analysis of the characteristics of specific contraceptives which may either enhance or limit their usefulness in large-scale family planning programs; the effectiveness of various techniques for disseminating a family message to women in the child-bearing ages and the process that individuals go through in the adoption of contraception. For women to become contraceptors, it is reasonable to believe that they must become aware that family limitation is possible and that methods to control births are available, learn how to use the methods to plan their families and actually try whatever methods they learn how to use. These three steps are often referred to as stages in the adoption process and are labeled, respectively, the awareness stage, the information-gathering stages and the trial stage. The contraceptive methods may have an effect on adoption because of such considerations as their effectiveness, ease of use, availability, or price, for example, and because of other similar considerations. The awareness source variable should be important both because some women may be selectively tuned to only a few sources and because these sources may carry only certain types of information.

The article focuses on family planning programs in the U.S. Family planning services in the United States are provided in the context of a medical economy dominated by private practice, and rewards are arranged in such manner that preventive medicine is honored more in theory than made available in practice. The economic structure of American medical practice perpetuates the historic division between curative and preventive medicine, and this division continues to be reflected in the character of medical education and the allocation of professional attention, status and other non-economic resources. While recent legislation has established new methods of financing intended to remedy some deficiencies in medical care for the poor. Their implementation has been limited in scope. Most states, indeed, have not gone beyond payment for curative services. In view of the limitations inherent in the organization of the U.S. medical practice, the very substantial degree of control over fertility achieved by most American couples is evidence more of their strong desire to limit family size than of the effectiveness of health programming. The fertility decline begun a decade earlier continued in 1967.

Copyright of Demography (Springer Nature) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Demography (Springer Nature) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents developments in the field of sociology, as of February 1, 1966. The 61st Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association will be held at the Hotel Fontainebleau, Miami Beach, Florida, and August 29 to September 1. 1966. The Institute on American Freedoms announces its sponsorship of a prize essay contest for graduate students in sociology. An award of $1,000 will be made for the best original research project on "frontier problems in the field of criminal law or the administration of criminal justice." The University of Michigan, Department of Medical Care Organization of the School of Public Health, announces the availability of fellowships for a program of study leading to the Ph.D. degree in medical care organization. The American Public Health Association Inc. will hold its 94th Annual Meeting in San Francisco on October 31 to November 4, 1966. Survey Research Center, the University of Michigan announces that for the nineteenth consecutive year, the center will hold a Summer Institute in Survey Research Technique.

Focuses on the etiology and treatment of benign esophageal strictures. Symptoms; Medical program of patients with strictures; Surgical procedures employed for strictures.

Presents several abstracts of gastronintestinal diseases. "Intestinal Hemorrhage in Von Recklinghausen's Disease," by N. Perryman Collins; "Cecostomy: A Part of an Efficient Method of Decompressing the Colon Obstructed by Cancer," by E. S. R. Hughes; "Congenital Anorectal Anomalies: Changing Concepts in Management," by Stephen L. Gans, Nathan B. Friedman and Joseph S. David.

Presents a case study of an elderly patient suffering from copious diarrhea, vomiting and electrolyte imbalance. Diagnosis of his illness; Medical history; Procedure for his treatment.

Presents a study of patients with diabetes mellitus who underwent biliary tract surgery. Significance of oral cholecystography; Pathological changes of acute cholecystitis; Percentage of patients who were operated upon for clinically acute cholecystitis.

Investigates the significance of psychological factors in ulcerative colitis. Considerations involved in an approach to an understanding of the illness; Characteristic features in the life situation of patients with ulcerative colitis; Role of psychotherapy correlated with appropriate pediatric and other medical care in the overall treatment of ulcerative colitis.

Presents a historical overview of communal medical care. Medical care in ancient Assyria and Babylonia; Medical facilities established in ancient Ceylon; Clinics for the sick established in ancient and middle age China; History of medicine in ancient Egypt.

Compares biliary drainage and cholecystography, two techniques used to diagnose biliary diseases. Types of cholecystography report that radiologist give as a diagnostic statement; Factor that may affect the accuracy of cholecystography; Limitations of cholecystography; Reason of the clinician for reviving the interest on biliary drainage.

Addresses the importance of certification and camaraderie among physicians in their task to care for ill human beings. Significance of certification to physicians; Purpose of medical associations and societies; Concept of the sense of fellowship among physicians in an organization.