Population Growth and Childhood Morbidity

1
Population Growth and Childhood Morbidity

• Frank Giorlando
• Sarah Cording
• Steph Williams
• Zoe Keon-Cohen
• Med V

2
Contents

• Population growth
• Australia
• Indigenous population
• Morbidity
• Australia
• Indigenous population
• How are they related?

3
Population Growth

• Australia 2001 Census
• June 2001 19.5 million people
• Growth rate 1.3
• (from 1996-2001)
• Fasting growing Northern Territory

4
Population Growth

• Indigenous population
• 1991 265,459 people identified as Aboriginal or
  Torres Strait Islanders
• Growth 16.6 (1986-1991)
• Consider growth in the context of
• Data collection accessing remote communities
• Social acceptability of ticking the aboriginal,
  torres strait islander box

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What is a fertility rate?

• Total fertility rate
• Average no. of children that a woman could expect
  to bear by end of her reproductive life span
• Data from birth registration data (particularly
  poor collection in Aboriginal community)

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In Australia..

• Indigenous fertility rate is 3.1 children per
  woman
• This is more than 50 higher than the fertility
  rate of total women in Australia 1.9 children
  per woman
• Who is more fertile?
• 15-24 yr old Indigenous fertility is 5 times
  higher than non-Indigenous

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Influences on population growth and fertility

• Culture
• Resources
• Psychology
• Money

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More acceptable reasons

• Higher fertility rates in Indigenous populations
  is associated with
• Less Indigenous people living in capital cities
• Less participation in labour force
• Even fewer educated beyond 15 years of age

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Compared with the rest of Australia

• High health and low death rates
• Status of women in Western society
• Work force
• Choices
• Access to family planning, antenatal, perinatal,
  paediatric care, medical services etc

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Part II Morbidity.

• In Australia we have WELL children
• 21 of population are children
• 16 of visits to the GP are for children aged
  0-14

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Top ten..

• Asthma
• Hay Fever
• Allergy
• Sinusitis
• Eczema
• Far sighted
• Short sighted
• Bronchitis

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Indigenous kids

• Indigenous children 5.5 of population
• 7 of paediatric hospital episodes
• Experience 2-6 times the normal rate of
• Respiratory
• Skin
• Injuries
• Infections

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Indigenous kids.

• Overall hospital episode rates are 47 greater
  among Indigenous females than non-Indigenous
  females..
• And 33 for the guys
• Similar conditions among children just more
  often.

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Whats the link?

• Malthusian theory looks at carrying capacity
• population growth geometrical
• subsistance arithmetic
• Essay on the Principle of Population 1798
• Paul Ehrlichs Population Bomb (1968) and Garrett
  Hardins "Tragedy of the Commons" (1968)

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Perspectives on the debate

• However, high population is not always associated
  with poverty (Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong)
• Redistributionist perspective
• poverty, lack of economic security, the high
  mortality rates of children, the low status of
  women and other factors force people to have
  large families

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What do we know

• Wealthier populations consume more resources
• Poorer populations have access to less resources,
  particularly land
• Landlessness is related to high fertility rates
• Poverty is related to child morbidity

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A final thought

• Time scale changes everything, consider long term
  negative population growth of Aboriginals
• Childhood morbidity related to intra-uterine
  environment
• Low population growth can be a marker of disease
  ie HIV in Zimbabwe