Session 8

Question 1

What is demography?

Answer 1

demos = people 
graphy = write/record/drawing

Demography is scientific and statistical the study of a population based on its size, composition, distribution, and changes.

Question 2

Name the 4 factors that influence the composition of a population.

Answer 2

1. Births
2. Deaths
3. Migration
4. Fertility

Question 3

Critically discuss how births influence population composition.

Answer 3

• Discussed as crude birth rate
• total number of live births in a specific period per 1000 people
• Birth rate is a variable of the following:
• demographic variables such as the # of women of child-bearing age
• availability of HC services

Question 4

Critically discuss how fertility influences population composition.

Answer 4

• Actual reproductive behaviour of women expressed as the fertility rate by calculating birth rate of women from ages 10-49 years
• It determines the size, age, composition, and growth of a population.

Question 5

Critically discuss how mortality influences population composition.

Answer 5

• Mortality describes both the likelihood of dying at any specific time and the expectation of survival
• Health traditionally focuses on preventing death and improving quality of life
• Factors that have to be considered in mortality are age, sex, race/ethnicity, region, medicine & tech, cause of death, and social and economic conditions

Question 6

Critically discuss how migration influences population composition.

Answer 6

• Migration is the movement of people between two clearly defined geographical units
• There is a difficulty in measuring and collecting accurate migration information
• Socio-economic status has an influence on health
• Migration comes about the result of people responding to negative, “push” factors from the place of origin and positive, “pull” factors to the place of destination
• betterment migration (better working environment)
• subsistence migration (socio-economic pressures force)
• retirement migration

Question 7

Define the Demographic Transition.

Answer 7

• A model developed to describe population dynamics based and birth and death rates.
• The country’s total population growth rate cycles through stages as the country develops economically
• Each stage is characterised by the specific relationship between the birth and death rate

Question 8

List the 4 stages of the Demographic Transition and describe each.

Answer 8

1. EARLY EXPANDING
   - most of the world during the industrial revolution
   - birth rates and death rates were high
   - population remained constant
2. EXPANDING
   - intro to medicine lowers death rates but birth rates remained high
   - resulted in rapid population growth
3. LATE EXPANDING
   - birth rates decreased due to access to contraceptives, improved economic conditions
   - growth rate continues but at a lower rate
4. STABLE POPULATION
   - both birth and death rates are low
   - stabilising the population

Question 9

What is a population pyramid?

Answer 9

A practical age-sex composition of a community

Question 10

Explain the 3 different types of population pyramid shapes.

Answer 10

1. Expansive
   * broad-based & narrow top
   * rapid-growing population
   * larger % in the younger cohorts
   * developing counties (higher fertility rates, lower than ave. life expectencies
   * health care needs:
   - birth control programmes
   - more schools and homes
   - focus on child health
2. Stationary
   * non-growing populations
   * rectangular shape
   * equal % across age cohorts
   * developed nations (low fertility, good quality of life)
3. Constrictive
   * narrow-based
   * elderly, shrinking populations
   * countries w/ higher levels of social and economic development
   * health care needs:
   - re-look at birth rates
   - care for the elderly

Question 11

Critically discuss Omran’s second proposition.

Answer 11

• Long-term shift occurs in mortality where pandemics are displaced by man-made sickness as the primary cause of death.

THE FIRST TRANSITION

• Age of Pestilence and Famine
• high mortality rates
• low average life span
• result of transition from hunter-gatherer to agranian societies
• changes in livelihood meant a change in population size
• less migration
• increase in infectious diseases

THE SECOND TRANSITION

• Age of Receding Pandemics
• decline in mortality rates
• increase in average life expectancy
• mortality by primarily chronic diseases
• new environmental hazards due to urban living

THE THIRD TRANSITION

• Age of Degenarative and Man-made Diseases
• cause of mortality is anthropogenic causes
• decline in mortality rates
• ave. life expectency increased
• fertility becomes important
• late 19th and 20th century in developed countries