Infant and child mortality rates have dropped sharply for all ethnic groups in Malaysia between 1950 and 1988, but persistent ethnic differences remain. In this article we assess the contribution of several potential reasons both for the decline and the remaining differences between the Malay and Chinese sub-populations. Increased use of health inputs is found to explain a substantial part of the decline, but increased education of mothers, and income growth are also important. Longer spacing between births, and, higher average age at birth as a result of lower fertility and higher age at marriage provide only a marginal direct contribution to the fall in mortality. We find that lower mortality among the Chinese is accounted for by their higher incomes and greater propensty to purchase medical care. We also control for self-selection among users of medical care, and find that those who use health care in Malaysia tend to be subject to higher-than-average risks.
Summary In order to unravel the complex set of the determinants of fertility, we suggest that the child-bearing process be separated into a sequence of events and intervals. As the first step in the child-bearing process, age at first birth is a critical variable. Using data from the 1966-67 West Malaysia Family Survey, we formulate and test a model of the cultural, social and economic determinants of the timing of first birth among a sample of mothers, aged 30-44. Social origins, measured by the woman's father's occupation and the woman's birthplace are not important determinants, but education, early work experience, and ethnicity exercise very strong effects on the age at first birth. Age at first marriage mediates much of the effect of background variables, which suggest that there is little use of contraception to plan the first birth interval. The strong effect of ethnicity is consistent with a cultural interpretation, but important qualifications are noted.
Summary Brass's procedure for estimating mortality from census or survey data on numbers of children born to women by age group and numbers of children surviving is generalized to allow the estimation of mortality trends. The new procedure is applied to data for Costa Rica and peninsular Malaysia. The resulting infant mortality rate estimates are compared with rates calculated from vital registration figures. The comparisons suggest, surprisingly, that the estimates derived from statistics for women aged 30-50 are not noticeably inferior to those derived from those for women aged 20-30. This suggests that the common practice of disregarding statistics for women aged over 30 or 35 years may be a mistake. Figures are presented which suggest that estimates based on women aged less than 20 are likely to be very seriously biased because of differential infant mortality by age of mother at birth.
Summary Median age at marriage for women has risen sharply for each of the three major ethnic groups - Malays, Chinese and Indians, in Peninsular Malaysia since 1957. The sharpest rise has been recorded for Malays and Indians, whose median age at marriage was barely over 17 in 1957. A shortage of potential husbands in the traditionally sanctioned ages contributed to the rise for Malays and Indians, but was probably not the paramount reason; average age differences between the spouses narrowed, but median age at marriage for men actually rose. During the same period, the previously extremely high divorce rates amongst Malays have fallen sharply, though wide inter-state differences remain. The sharp changes in marriage patterns reflect, and in turn are partly responsible for, far-reaching social and economic changes. They have profoundly affected fertility levels and patterns, as well as intra-familial relationships.
Abstract This paper examines the determinants of age at first birth from an explicitly comparative perspective in the following Asian societies: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. The key structural variables have the same (or similar) effects in each of the groups examined. Education through primary school and beyond has a strong delaying effect on age at first birth in all eight populations. Difference of rural-urban origin does not affect the timing of motherhood in any of these societies. We also find a remarkably strong effect of shared cultural heritage. All the Confucian groups tend to behave similarly, as do the Muslim and Hindu groups.
Abstract This note deals with a special problem of estimating a contingency table arising in demographic analysis. What we require are the estimates of the numbers of births and deaths in Malaya crossclassified by state and race for the years of the Japanese occcupation, 1942-45. For many reasons this period had an adverse effect on the Chinese and Indian Communities, and hence the two-fold result of a greater reduction in the number of births and a larger increase in the number of deaths in states with a smaller proportion of Malay population. The estimates are worked out by means of a technique which takes into consideration this actual demographic situation.
Abstract The birth rate in Hong Kong fell rapidly from 1961 to 1966: from 35·5 in 1961 to 25·8 in 1966 1 These rates are based on corrected estimates of population and of births made after the 1966 census. They differ somewhat from rates published before that, because the earlier rates had not been adjusted for some underregistration of births and had been calculated on larger population bases than proved to be justified by the census. - a decline of27%. Such a decline deserves special attention, because there are only a few examples of such trends in poor, high-fertility populations since World War II. We have just begun to find evidence of such declines in a few of the other rapidly developing countries of Asia: Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Abstract The Murut tribe of Sabah (formerly North Borneo) numbered 30,300 in 1921, decreased to 18,700 in 1951, and increased again to 22,100 in 1960. In 1951, the tribe was a small diminishing section of a slowly growing population; in 1960 it was increasing itself, and the growth rate of the whole population had shot up. Marked variations in the age structures of the Murut and other indigenous tribes accompanied these changes. Between 1920 and 1960 several investigators attempted to explain the decline, but could not show why only one tribe was failing to hold its own among many others which were increasing. Their findings are summarized, and unpublished data from the 1960 census are given which suggest that increasing contacts with the rest of the population, earlier thought to be an important contributor to the decline, were probably the means of saving the Murut from extinction.
Although extensively collected, data on people's reasons for their behaviour provided retrospectively have been met with some scepticism on the grounds that they may be subject to biases and errors that jeopardize their usefulness. This study investigates, for a sample of 1,327 births, the reliability with which women in Peninsular Malaysia recalled, at intervals 12 years apart, reasons for not initiating or for stopping breastfeeding less than 3 months after a birth. Overall, we find low to moderate reliability of recall. Levels of reliability are relatively high for some reasons (the child died and no or insufficient milk) but low for some others (child ill, breastfeeding inconvenient). Results from selection models show that reliability does not vary with the length of time since the child's birth but is inversely related to socio-economic status (proxied by education and employment). Social status, social norms, and health-related factors appear to be significant influences on women's consistency of reporting.