Population Studies

Socialization is an interactive communication process that involves both individual development and personal influences, namely the personal reception and interpretation of all social messages, but also the dynamics and content of social influences. Thus, socialization is a complex process that is based on the theory of social learning, learning which a fundamental mechanism of assimilation of social experience is. Although retaining certain autonomy, man and society form an indissoluble unity, and society is generated by the relationship between its members. The socialization term is expressed in the literature by social learning, culture and so forth. All these terms have the meaning of a process through which the little child is humanized by acquiring human behaviors. In order for the socialization process to prove its efficiency, it must develop the individual's ability to self-educate, to manage himself to discern between good and evil, to know how to choose between the moral attitudes that are assessed by society negatively and those which allow for adequate social cohabitation. The purpose of this essay is to discuss how schools usually reinforce or extend the socialization received in the family. This essay will first define key terms such as; socialization; family; School, followed by the main body, thereafter a conclusion shall be drawn at the end.

A programming model is the primary genre of computer programming, and they vary in the way different elements of the program are represented and how steps for fixing obstacles are defined. There are several programming languages but two of the most important methods are Object Oriented Programming and Procedural Programming languages.

Currently, there is a lot of discussions in the country especially in the political arena asserting as to whether or not a federal system is better than a unitary system of administration with some political parties including these concerns in their party manifestos. To compound the problem, Zambia has been considered as a struggling country in terms of development with most people feeling neglected by those in positions of governance. Therefore, this essay will explain what aspects of federalism can straight forwardly and effectively be adopted or incorporated into the Zambian unitary system. It will further, show the extent to which a unitary system of administration affects tenets of democracy and decentralisation in Zambia. This will be done by means of justifications and practical examples. Elazar (1987:220) made the following observations. He defined unitary system of governance as a form of government where the powers of governance are concentrated in a single central government, with legal omnipotence over all territory within the state. Local governments may and usually do exist, but they are creatures of the central government and act as its agents. The term unitary stems from the word 'unit' which means one part of something that is whole or complete in itself but is also part of the bigger part. Since a government system does not only encompass the mechanism of government but also the structures and processes through which these interact with society, we can also define the unitary system as one in which the mechanisms, processes of governance, institutions of a country, and authority (or power, legitimate or not) are run as a unit. Under a unitary system, a country is administered as one component and one central authority over the whole country. It is characterised by a single appointing authority for all the major administrative and political positions, and a single cabinet for the whole country. Decisions are made centrally and applied universally. Such a system seems to promote the concentration of power and authority to the centre as opposed to de-concentration or delegation to periphery in governance. Any form of decentralization would be for administrative convenience and divisions or organs can be extended, multiplied, reduced or abolished by the centre. Unitarism promotes a two tier structure where there is; central and local governments and local authorities are a creature of central governments. The centre holds more power and any peripheral creations are subordinate and not coordinate to the central government. Unitary system differs from federal systems as the central government dictates the limit and conditions with delegation of authority to sub-national level and therefore more a hierarchical system (Vile, 2003:121).

Background Infant and child nutrition in Zambia remains a pressing public health problem. The Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) indicates that 35% of children under-five and 36 % among those aged 6-23 months are stunted. This study set out to assess the influence of Infant and Child Feeding (IYCF) practices on child stunting (6-23 months) in Zambia. Methods The 2008 ZDHS children’s data were analysed to measure stunting among infants aged 6-23 months. We fitted a bivariate logistic regression to measure association between feeding practices and stunting in children. Pearson’s Chi-square test of proportions measuring differences in proportions and adjusted odd ratios (AOR) with confidence intervals at 95% are reported. Results Findings indicate that 36% were stunted. IYCF practices indicators remain relatively poor in Zambia with only 13% of children age 6-23 months having received minimum acceptable diet, 23% received minimum dietary diversity and 42% received minimum meal...

IntroductionTeenage pregnancy remains a major social and public health challenge in developing countries especially sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where prevalence rates are still increasing. Even if considerable effort has been made over the years to study determining factors of teenage pregnancy in SSA, few studies have looked at the trends and associated factors over a longer period. Furthermore, no known study has focussed on both individual and contextual factors influencing teenage pregnancy in Zambia. This study, thus sought to fill this gap in knowledge by simultaneously investigating trends of teenage pregnancy and early motherhood as well as its individual and contextual determining factors. MethodsA total pooled weighted sample of 10,010 teenagers (in the age group 15 to 19) from four waves of the Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS) were extracted. Using bivariate analysis, we investigated the trends of teenage pregnancy between 2001 and 2018. Separate multilevel logis...

The sex ratio question has been an area of growing interest in population dynamics, especially in developing countries with respect to the issue of missing women, but few studies have examined this in sub-Saharan Africa. Both at birth and in the general population, sex ratios follow an expected demographic pattern in the absence of the interference of historical events affecting either males or females in a population. In Zambia, an unexpected demographic pattern of sex ratios is exhibited in census and survey data. This study used data from censuses and surveys conducted from 1969 to 2014 to examine variations in sex ratios in the Zambian population. It was found that sex ratio imbalances were largely due to data deficiencies due to age misreporting and under-enumeration. A consistent under-enumeration of young adult males in the 20-34 years age group was found. A systematic pattern of high sex ratios, above 100, for ages 40 was found, represented by synthetic cohorts traceable from the 1969 census, progressing to the 2000 census and phased out in the 2010 census. Extremely high adult male mortality was found in 2010 in the 35-59 years age group, primarily attributable to HIV/AIDS. Understanding the demographic pattern of sex ratios in a population is relevant for policies to improve the quality of data collection systems, and socioeconomic development planning, for the young age group population, which is prone under-enumeration.

Background More than 3 million children under 5 years in developing countries die from dehydration due to diarrhea, a preventable and treatable disease. We conducted a comparative analysis of two Demographic Health Survey (DHS) cycles to examine changes in ORS coverage in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. These surveys are cross-sectional conducted on a representative sample of the non-institutionalized individuals. Methods The sample is drawn using a stratified two-stage cluster sampling design with census enumeration areas, typically, selected first as primary sampling units (PSUs) and then a fixed number of households from each PSU. We examined national and sub-regional prevalence of ORS use during a recent episode of diarrhea (within 2 weeks of survey) using DHSs for 2007–2010 (1st Period), and 2013–2016 (2nd Period). Weighted proportions of ORS were obtained and multivariable- design-adjusted logistic regression analysis was used to obtain Odds Ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence inter...

This research paper examined social isolation and aging in Zambia by examining possible predictors. The paper produces evidence on risk factors likely to engender social isolation among the elderly population of Zambia. Snowball sampling was undertaken to select 690 adults aged 60 and over in communities as well as those living in homes for the aged. A structured questionnaire was used to solicit information from respondents. Results show that old people in Zambia experience forms of social isolation which exhibit themselves (but not limited to) through such factors as loss of appetite, stress, moody, hopeless, useless, unhappy, and lonely. On balance, however, the direction of association and the number of statistically significant findings suggest that associations between variables examined and risk factors associated with social isolation amongst older people in this analysis could explain the overall situation occuring currently in Zambia and probably other developing countries...

Up-to-date evidence about levels and trends in disease and injury incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) is an essential input into global, regional, and national health policies. In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013), we estimated these quantities for acute and chronic diseases and injuries for 188 countries between 1990 and 2013. Estimates were calculated for disease and injury incidence, prevalence, and YLDs using GBD 2010 methods with some important refinements. Results for incidence of acute disorders and prevalence of chronic disorders are new additions to the analysis. Key improvements include expansion to the cause and sequelae list, updated systematic reviews, use of detailed injury codes, improvements to the Bayesian meta-regression method (DisMod-MR), and use of severity splits for various causes. An index of data representativeness, showing data availability, was calculated for each cause and impairment during three periods globally...

Improving survival and extending the longevity of life for all populations requires timely, robust evidence on local mortality levels and trends. The Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study (GBD 2015) provides a comprehensive assessment of all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015. These results informed an in-depth investigation of observed and expected mortality patterns based on sociodemographic measures. We estimated all-cause mortality by age, sex, geography, and year using an improved analytical approach originally developed for GBD 2013 and GBD 2010. Improvements included refinements to the estimation of child and adult mortality and corresponding uncertainty, parameter selection for under-5 mortality synthesis by spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, and sibling history data processing. We also expanded the database of vital registration, survey, and census data to 14 294 geography-year datapoints. For GBD 2015...

Established in 2000, Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4) catalysed extraordinary political, financial, and social commitments to reduce under-5 mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. At the country level, the pace of progress in improving child survival has varied markedly, highlighting a crucial need to further examine potential drivers of accelerated or slowed decreases in child mortality. The Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study (GBD 2015) provides an analytical framework to comprehensively assess these trends for under-5 mortality, age-specific and cause-specific mortality among children under 5 years, and stillbirths by geography over time. Drawing from analytical approaches developed and refined in previous iterations of the GBD study, we generated updated estimates of child mortality by age group (neonatal, post-neonatal, ages 1-4 years, and under 5) for 195 countries and territories and selected subnational geographies, from 1980-2015. We also estimated numbers and r...

National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. We mapped the most widely used list of causes amenable to personal health care developed by Nolte and McKee to 32 GBD causes. We accounted for variations in cause of death certification and misclassifications through the extensive data standardisation processes and redistribution algorithms developed for GBD. To isolate th...