Multiple sex partner behavior in female undergraduate students in China: A multi-campus survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>China is realizing increases in women engaged in premarital sex and multiple sex partner behavior. Our aim was to examine prevalence and determinants of multiple sex partner behavior among female undergraduates in China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Anonymously completed questionnaires were received from 4,769 unmarried female undergraduates, recruited using randomized cluster sampling by type of university and students' major and grade. Items captured demographic, family, peer and work influence, and student factors (major, academic performance, and sex-related knowledge and attitudes). To examine risk factors for sexual behaviors, we used multi-level logistic regression, yielding odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 4,769 female students, 863 (18.10%) reported ever having sexual intercourse, and 5.31% reported having multiple sex partners (29.32% of all women having sexual intercourse). Several demographic, family, peer and work influences, and student factors (including major, performance, knowledge, and attitude toward sex) were risk factors for ever having sex. However, risk factors for multiple sex partners only included working in a place of entertainment, having current close friends that were living with boyfriends, poor academic performance, and positive attitudes toward multiple partners. These women also were more likely to practice masturbation, start having sex at a younger age, have sex with married men and/or men not their "boyfriends" at first coitus, and not use condoms consistently.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A small but important subset of Chinese female undergraduates is engaged in unprotected sex with multiple sex partners. Interventions need to target at risk women, stressing the importance of consistent condom use.</p

Is there value in an arts education? An analysis using the 1997 National Graduates survey

This thesis uses the National Survey of 1995 Graduates, surveyed in 1997 by Statistics Canada to compare the various labour market outcomes of Bachelor's and 1st Professional degree university graduates across fields of study. The employment outcomes compared include: extent of part-time employment, rates and duration of unemployment, rates of employment, wages and benefits, level of education required for job, relation of job to degree, job satisfaction, satisfaction with money, and skill use in current job. Field of study is only one of many factors which contributes to graduates' labour market success. Motivations, job-education match, generic skill use and gender are other factors which are examined. The research draws-mainly on the theories of human capital and labour market segmentation. The research developed out of the unresolved debate over whether arts programs prepare students for labour market success. The popular perception is that graduates of the fine and applied arts, social sciences and humanities end up unemployed, underemployed and miserable, whereas graduates from the faculties of health, sciences, commerce, education and engineering end up in well-paying, satisfying jobs that use the skills they learned in school. Analysis suggests that there is considerable value in an arts education, not only from a work preparatory perspective but also because of the contributions it makes to graduates' lives beyond the workplace. The data also indicate a critical need for measures which can be used to assess the broader or non-monetary contributions of a university education as well as indicators which can be used to gauge the non-pecuniary aspects of employment

Using Canadian data linkage to investigate the socioeconomic patterning of hospital burden for childbirth

ABSTRACT Objectives Birth and delivery in hospital is one of the most common medical procedures in Canadian hospitals, and can be used to assess equity in the delivery of health care. This study investigates the association between socioeconomic status and hospital burden for childbirth using linked Canadian survey and administrative databases, accounting for a wide array of other individual and health-care related characteristics. Approach A population-based record linkage between national health survey data and the Canadian Discharge Abstract Database (a census of all Canadian hospital separations) allowed the tracking of hospital utilization between 2005 and 2009 for which individual-level socioeconomic and demographic factors were also available. Length of stay for delivery, risk of pre-delivery hospitalization within 30 days of admission for delivery, and risk of maternal readmission within 30 days of discharge for delivery were the three measures of hospital utilization modeled. Results Complete information for 7,163 deliveries of 5,568 women was available and used in the models of length of stay and risk of maternal admission pre- and post-delivery. In fully adjusted models, predicted length of stay was graded by household income with longest stays for lowest income women (2.79 days, 95% CI 2.61-2.92), followed by middle income women (2.63 days, 95% CI 2.50-2.76) and high income women (2.56 days, 95% CI 2.49-2.63). Factors intrinsic to routine hospital care and protocol such as province and vaginal versus Cesarean section delivery were stronger predictors of length of stay than income. Additionally, Aboriginal status, compounded with residing in a rural setting was associated with higher predicted probability of maternal readmission. Conclusions Low income women have marginally longer stays in hospital following birth events than do middle and high-income women in Canada that persist after adjustment for strong drivers of length of stay (parity and birth mode). While this may suggest that more complicated cases are benefiting from longer stays in hospital, it provokes the question as to whether there may be additional reductions in length of stay that could be achieved through resource redistribution to the prenatal period. Overall, the results suggest that equity goals of the Canadian health care system are being achieved for birth-related hospitalizations, and the availability of these linked data will be key for further comprehensive evaluation of population health status