INSIDE STATISTICS
THIS IS the South Africa I know, the home I understand through the lens of how we reproduce life by giving birth, regulate it through contraception, end it for infants and children through death. We explore the health of mothers and children through the eye of antenatal and postnatal care.
Children from birth signify the future and we navigate how this future is guaranteed or otherwise, through immunisation against disease and feeding practices. We make observations on anthropometric measures and associated risks to stunting among South African children.
As the sex act is central to reproduction as well as sexually-transmitted diseases, we walk through the sex forest and observe practices of this social and biological endeavour in order to understand its implications on HIV/Aids.
Societal consumption practices and patterns of alcohol and tobacco use do not escape the spotlight. Finally, there is the commentary on spousal violence. Through the South African Demographic and Health Survey 2016, we shed more light on this and others.
South Africa is approaching a demographic winter, wherein women are giving birth to fewer children.
In the last three years on average, the number of children born per woman was 2.6 compared to an average of 2.9 over a three-year period ending in 1998.
As of 2016, the average for the year is at 2.4 children per woman, which is 0.2 children lower than the three-year average.
The onset of childbearing is at age 15, where four in a 100 girls have given birth, but this doubles with each year of life. wherein by age 19, almost one in three girls have given birth.
A third of these births are by girls who have not completed primary school.
By the time they have two children, half the married mothers have no desire for more children and this lack of desire rises to 62 percent for married mothers who have up to three children.
Fifty eight percent of all women between 15 to 49 years of age not only use contraception, but apply modern methods of contraception, with women’s controlled methods accounting for 44 percentage points and male condoms coming in 14 percentage points in the 58 percent.
Among currently married women, the use of female sterilisation declined from 16 percent in 1998 to 8 percent in 2016, while the use of the male condom rose from 2 percent in 1998 to 9 percent in 2016. For sexually-active unmarried women, the use of injectables declined from 44 percent in 1998 to 26 percent in 2016.
The use of the pill declined from 16 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2016; over this same time period, the use of the male condom rose from 3 percent in 1998 to 24 percent in 2016.
South Africans are aware of HIV/Aids testing, in this regard 93 percent are aware of this.
Although 81 percent have tested for HIV/Aids in the age group 15 to 24, 31 percent have never tested for HIV/Aids. at
South Africans engage in multiple sexual partnerships. Overall, 5 percent of women reported they had two or more partners in the past 12 months, and 45 percent had intercourse in the past 12 months with a person who was neither their spouse nor lived with them.
Using condoms
Among women who had two or more partners in the past 12 months, 58 percent reported using a condom during their last sexual intercourse.
Among women who had intercourse with a person who was neither their spouse nor lived with them, 60 percent used a condom at last sexual intercourse. The mean number of lifetime partners for women who have ever had sexual intercourse is 3.9.
Among men, 17 percent age 15 to 49 reported that they had two or more partners in the past 12 months, and 55 percent had intercourse in the past 12 months with a person who was neither their spouse nor lived with them. Among men who had two or more partners in the past 12 months, 65 percent reported using a condom during their last sexual intercourse. Among men who had intercourse with a person who was neither their spouse nor lived with them, 69 percent used a condom at last sexual intercourse.
The mean number of lifetime partners among all men age 15 to 49 who have ever had sexual intercourse is more than three times that of women at 14.7. Despite awareness of HIV/Aids and testing, or perhaps because of their behaviour, South Africans indeed test for HIV/Aids. By 2016, 96 percent of delivery of children was in a clinic compared to 83 percent in 1998 and 97 percent of these were with a skilled health provider compared to 84 percent in 1998.
Infant mortality has declined by 20 percent from 45 deaths per 1 000 to 35 deaths per 1 000 live births between 1998 and 2016. More children now experience what it means to be five years old, as child mortality has correspondingly declined by 28 percent from 59 per 1 000 live births to 42 per 1 000 live births.
However, stunting remains real as children under five fail to grow at the corresponding pace to their age. Among boys almost one in three is stunted and among girls one in four is. On the other end of the scale South Africans remain obese, especially blacks (20 percent) and highest
South Africans are more savvy about HIV/Aids, the number of teens falling pregnant is a worry, while 40% of spouses suffer violence in the country.
among coloured women at 26 percent. Those who are very wealthy, the fifth quintile among women are also obese.
Almost one in three, although wealthy, is obese and is at an elevated risk for heart disease, diabetes and other conditions related to obesity, and as such may permanently part ways with the riches leaving a husband to a state of widowhood and children as orphans. In the case of men, the prevalence of severe obesity was 14 percent for white men, 7 percent for coloured men and only 2 percent for black/ African men.
At 65, Mrs Dlamini still enjoys a puff and gets inebriated at times. But as one belonging to the black population group, her smoking behaviour is no match to Mevrou van Zyl’s white population group, wherein practices among women is five times the 3 percent among black and Indian women.
Coloured women are an outlier, as 38 percent of them smoke. On the other hand, their male counterparts show no major racial differences, with half the coloured men enjoying a dose of nicotine, while they are closely followed by Indian