Selection intensities in menopausal and permanent contraceptor women of a rural population in India.

Abstract

Changing fertility and mortality patterns due to socioeconomic forces have a profound effect on natural selection in human populations. The opportunity for selection was estimated in the rural population of Visakhapatnam District, Andra Pradesh, India, in 1979. A total of 1570 women were interviewed, 1544 among them had ever been pregnant. Data were analyzed to compute fertility and mortality components of the population. The index of total selection was found to be low. Selection in relation to birth control reveals that opportunity for selection is lower among women who completed their fertility by family planning methods than in women who completed their fertility by attaining menopause. Further, the results showed that differential fertility and mortality make equal contributions to the total measure of selection in both groups, whereas in developed countries like the US the mortality component contributes only a small fraction to the total index, due to improved health conditions.