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Biomedical subjects

T R Balakrishnan

Publications and source records attributed to T R Balakrishnan.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Dissolution of premarital cohabitation in Canada.

The rapid increase in the number of unmarried cohabiting couples, indicated by recent evidence, is crucial to our understanding of changing marriage patterns. The levels and patterns of entry into cohabitation have been well documented over the last two decades, but little is known about the outcomes of nonmarital cohabitation. In this study we examine two competing outcomes of cohabitation relationships: union separation and legalization of the union through marriage. Our results show that the hazard rate of union dissolution is affected particularly by gender, fertility status, partner's marital status, religion, age at start of cohabitation, year cohabitation commenced, and region.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Changes in timing of fertility--a Canadian experience.

This paper examines the patterns of timing of births of women using data from the Canadian Fertility Survey of 1984. Semi-Markovian schemes are applied to the maternity histories of the 5315 sample women in their reproductive ages in order to measure the intensity and timing of childbearing. Age-and-duration-specific transition probabilities are found to have substantially changed for the more recent birth cohorts compared to the older cohorts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Timing of first birth and second birth spacing in Canada.

In Canadian society the influence of first birth timing on the subsequent birth interval has been eroded over time, as shown by the Canadian Fertility Survey of 1984. The influence of first birth timing is significant for second births among women married during the baby boom period, but not for those married thereafter. Religiosity, marital status, and place of residence are significant factors in second birth timing in Canada.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Socio-demographic correlates of childlessness: an analysis of the 1971 Canadian census.

"The purpose of this paper is to examine childless women and the different socio-demographic characteristics associated with this demographic pattern. The study focuses on the proportion of ever-married and currently married women 15 years of age and over who were childless in 1971. The data source is the 1971 Canadian census 1 percent sample tape based on individual files, which yields a total sample of 46,376 women from all across Canada. The major correlations with childlessness among these women are age and marriage duration. The longer (and earlier) a woman is married, the lower the levels of childlessness when obvious demographic factors are controlled." It is found that "ascribed characteristics of ever-married women provide no meaningful associations to childlessness, and this description is applicable to the variables of religion, ethnicity, mother tongue, home language, and place of birth. Achieved characteristics, especially among the younger cohorts of women, are more revealing, and women who have higher family incomes, higher levels of education, who are living in large urban places and are involved in the labor force (among themselves highly correlated variables) generally have higher rates of childlessness. Implications of these findings are discussed."

Age Factors↗
PubMed1976

Life expectancy of mentally retarded persons in Canadian institutions.

Data obtained from Statistics Canada were presented on the mortality level and expectancy of life for profoundly retarded and severely and moderately retarded persons in Canadian institutions for the years 1966 through 1968. Previous studies of mortality statistics were reported in mortality rates, average age at death, and crude death rates which are affected by the age distribution of the population involved. The very young and the very old are underrepresented in institutions, and thus these measures are not as accurate as life expectancy tables, which present the number of years expected to live, are independent of age distribution, and provide a reliable statistical measure for future replication and international comparisons. Retarded persons in institutions are living longer than previously, but their life expectancy does not meet that of the general population. Estimates of life expectancy for this population are vital for planning purposes.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Age at first birth in Canada: a hazards model analysis.

Studies on age at 1st birth and its covariates are few in the demographic literature on Canada, mainly due to the paucity of maternity history data. This is the 1st paper on this aspect of fertility, based on the data collected through the Canadian Fertility Survey in 1984 by Balakrishnan and colleagues. Since the majority of childbearing in Canada is still within marriage, this study focuses on ever-married women in the prime reproductive ages, 18-49, in 1984. To circumvent the problems of selectivity and censoring in the analysis of retrospective maternity history collected in a cross-sectional survey, the authors have chosen Cox's proportional hazards model for multivariate analysis for each of the age cohorts, viz. 18-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, and 45-49. As the focus is on the 1st birth, women 35 years of age and over can be viewed as having sufficient time for the 1st birth and thus as different from younger age cohorts. Separate analyses for different age groups is done to achieve greater homogeneity of covariate effects. The results indicate that ever married women with lower ages at marriage, premarital pregnancy, low education, not working, and nonuse of contraception before the 1st pregnancy are the potential early family starters. The significance of covariate effects varied for different age cohorts. Also presented are estimates of relative risks of the 1st birth by various combinations of covariates, ranging from high risk to low risk groups utilizing the baseline survival function obtained from the proportional hazards model.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Contraceptive use in Canada, 1984.

Canada's first national fertility survey, carried out by telephone in 1984, found that 68 percent of all women aged 18-49-73 percent of currently married women, 69 percent of the previously married women and 57 percent of single women--are practicing contraception. Overall, the most widely used method of birth control in Canada is sterilization (male and female), which is relied on by almost 60 percent of all married users and 66 percent of previously married users. Among single women, the preferred method is the pill, chosen by seven out of 10 of such users. Among all women, the major determinant of method choice is age: The pill is overwhelmingly chosen by women under 25, and sterilization, by those 30 and over. While the IUD and the condom are used by roughly 10-14 percent of women in their 20s who practice contraception, these methods decline in importance with increasing age. Highly educated women are less likely than those with little education to elect sterilization, and more likely to rely on barrier methods. Differences in contraceptive prevalence and patterns of use between Catholics and Protestants have all but disappeared in Canada, but church attendance and country of birth appear to exert a modest influence on method choice. As might be anticipated, women whose family size is complete have considerably higher levels of contraceptive use than those who expect to have more children. The survey reveals no difference in contraceptive use between Quebec women and those in the rest of Canada, thus confirming both the accuracy of earlier Quebec studies showing extremely high levels of sterilization and the applicability of these findings to all other Canadian women.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗