No abstract

"Helpers at the nest," usually offspring of a preceding litter who contribute by feeding the young to increase the reproductive success of a breeding pair, are known in many species of birds and mammals. Although similar behaviors were described by ethnological observations in several human societies, there is a lack of data on their existence and role. This study of 794 reproductive life histories of post-menopausal Berber women of Southern Morocco aims to provide such information. Results show that the presence of "probable helpers" in the household is related to higher fertility scores and is associated with improved survival of offspring to sexual maturity. In contrast to sparse observations from other human societies, there is no indication that child caretaking would be specific to eldest daughters. Although the association between offspring survival and helping patterns seems highly probable, there is no confirmation that child caretaking per se is the relevant variable. Contrary to nonhuman helpers at the nest, workloads of children range from housekeeping to light agricultural tasks, and are not focused on assisting younger siblings. The improvement of reproductive success is probably the result of multiple interactions, among which the network of kinship would play a role at both the levels of economy and reciprocal assistance.

Moroccan Berbers and the Bolivian Aymara are two unrelated peasant groups living in adverse environments with a still rather traditional agriculture. Precarious life conditions may be responsible for the importance given to male labor and hence for the cultural preference conferred on male descent. This preference, expressed in the social valorization of sons to the detriment of daughters, is more emphasized if the socioeconomic status of the family is lower. Interpreted according to the cost/benefit approach of Fisher (1958 Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, New York: Dover) of variations in the sex ratio and to its later developments (Trivers and Willard 1973 Science 179:90-91; Trivers 1985 Social Evolution, Menlo Park: Benjamin/Cummings; Hewlett 1991 J. Anthropol. Res. 47:1-37; Smith 1993 Ethol. Sociobiol. 14:39-44), these cultural characteristics could determine that parents bias the care allocated to their progeny in favor of sons, to the detriment of daughters. This could eventually affect their respective survival and finally modify the offspring tertiary sex ratio. This study compares differences in survival as indicators of parental care according to a child's sex and across three economic strata: poor, medium, and high. The Moroccan data express no other sex differences in survival than an advantage for daughters during the preweaning period in the medium and high strata. Within the same sex and across economic strata, a greater mortality between age 10-20 years is observed for boys of the poorest stratum. The Aymara data do not show sex differences by economic stratum, except for an advantage to daughters between birth and 5 years in the medium group, and no survival differences within the same sex across economic strata. These results suggest either that despite the social valorization of male progeny no differences in parental care according to sex occur, or that their magnitude is not great enough to contrast the survival of sons and daughters.

The objective of the present study was to determine the factors independently associated with disclosure of seropositivity to one's steady sexual partner in people living with HIV (PLHIV) who are recipients of services provided by Association de Lutte Contre le Sida, a Moroccan community-based organization (CBO) working on AIDS response. Between May and October 2011, 300 PLHIV were interviewed about their sociodemographic and economic characteristics, their sexual life and disclosure of their serostatus to their friends, family and to their steady sexual partner. A weighted logistic regression was used to study factors associated with serostatus disclosure to one's steady sexual partner. We restricted the analysis to people who declared they had a steady sexual partner (n = 124). Median age was 36 years old, 56 % were men and 62 % declared that they had disclosed their serostatus to their steady sexual partner. The following factors were independently associated with disclosure: living with one's steady sexual partner [OR 95 % CI: 9.85 (2.86-33.98)], having a higher living-standard index [2.06 (1.14-3.72)], regularly discussing HIV with friends [6.54 (1.07-39.77)] and CBO members [4.44 (1.27-15.53)], and having a higher social exclusion score [1.24 (1.07-1.44)]. Unemployment (as opposed to being a housewife) was negatively associated with disclosure [0.12 (0.02-0.87)]. Despite the potential positive effects for the prevention of HIV transmission and for adherence to HIV treatment, many PLHIV had not disclosed their serostatus to their steady sexual partner. Some factors shown here to be significantly associated with such disclosure will help in the development of future support interventions.

The median age at menarche observed by status-quo methods in 1991, and calculated by mean of probit analysis in a sample of 239 school girls from Marrakesh aged 11-17 years, was 13.75 +/- 0.17 years. Compared with earlier observations obtained for Moroccan girls in 1982 and 1987 the results show a decline of age at menarche of 0.55 year in the period 1982-91 and 0.25 year in the period 1987-91.

The determinants of modern contraceptive use in traditional populations are analysed in married women aged 30-44 living in the province of Marrakech (Morocco). Women who have never used contraception have smaller family sizes than those who do: the number of live children (or live births) is the variable with maximum predictive power on contraceptive use, while child mortality is the main inhibiting factor. The probability of contraceptive use increases with female age at marriage and decreases with the woman's age, indicating a generational change in reproductive behaviour. The socioeconomic variables education, employment and residence, have no significant independent predictive character on contraceptive use, although the interaction between education and residence does. The paper evaluates the hypothesis that traditional populations in the initial phase of their demographic transition resort to modern contraception in order to stop childbearing, when they have reached a desired number of children, rather than to space births or reduce their fertility.

No abstract

Background. Lifestyle maintenance is a crucial condition before and after lung cancer disease. According to the previous research in the scientific databases, the effect of the interaction between socioeconomic and demographic factors on the lifestyle of lung cancer patients in Southern Morocco regions remains unexamined. Accordingly, this study was designed to examine the relationship between socioeconomic factors, demographic factors, and the lifestyle of lung cancer patients. Methods. A total of 133 patients with lung cancer were divided into 103 men and 30 women with a sex ratio of 3.43 and ages varying between 28 and 82 years, and they served as informants for the study and filled in a questionnaire to provide information on their sociodemographic background, various economic characteristics, and their lifestyle. These patients have also been submitted to an anthropometric examination following the standardized procedure recommended by the World Health Organization. The survey was conducted from July 2013 to March 2015 at the Oncology and Radiotherapy Department, at Mohammed VI Hospital Center in Marrakech, Morocco. Results. The preliminary results showed that the average age of patients was 59 ± 9 years. A proportion of 81% lived in the Marrakech-Safi region and 19% lived in four other southern regions. Among the patients, 6% were smokers, while 14% were nonsmokers and 80% were ex smokers. Following the discovery of the disease, 26% revealed that they had sleep disorders and 98% were reported to have a lack of appetite. Obesity, normal weight, and underweight were also taken as criteria to categorize the patients; thus, obese informants represented 23% of the total number, those having normal weight reached 67% and the patients having underweight represented 10%. Conclusion. Sociodemographic variables and various economic characteristics were shown to have a negative impact on the lifestyle of lung cancer patients.