South African abortion attitudes from 2007-2016: the roles of religiosity and attitudes toward sexuality and gender equality

ABSTRACT

Abortion is legal in South Africa, but negative abortion attitudes remain common and are poorly understood. We used nationally representative South African Social Attitudes Survey data to analyze abortion attitudes in the case of fetal anomaly and in the case of poverty from 2007 to 2016 (n = 20,711; ages = 16+). We measured correlations between abortion attitudes and these important predictors: religiosity, attitudes about premarital sex, attitudes about preferential hiring and promotion of women, and attitudes toward family gender roles. Abortion acceptability for poverty increased over time (b = 0.05, p < .001), but not for fetal anomaly (b = ?0.008, p = .284). Highly religious South Africans reported lower abortion acceptability in both cases (Odds Ratio (OR)_anomaly = 0.85, p = .015; OR_poverty = 0.84, p = .02). Premarital sex acceptability strongly and positively predicted abortion acceptability (OR_anomaly = 2.63, p < .001; OR_poverty = 2.46, p < .001). Attitudes about preferential hiring and promotion of women were not associated with abortion attitudes, but favorable attitudes about working mothers were positively associated with abortion acceptability for fetal anomaly ((OR_anomaly = 1.09, p = .01; OR_poverty = 1.02, p = .641)). Results suggest negative abortion attitudes remain common in South Africa and are closely tied to religiosity, traditional ideologies about sexuality, and gender role expectations about motherhood.     

The Relationship Between Dental Utilization and Preventive Participation Among a Well-elderly Sample

Previous studies have shown that dental utilization by older people is lower than for the general population. This study hypothesizes that an elder's tendency toward participating in preventive health activities may be an important factor in explaining the likelihood of accessing the dentist. Subjects included 1,911 older individuals who enrolled in the UCLA Medicare Screening and Health Promotion Trial. All were interviewed about their utilization of preventive health services and participation in preventive behaviors. A recent dental visit was positively associated with all sociodemographic variables examined except age and sex. It was also related to health status questions and utilization of the preventive health services and health behaviors studied. Logistic regression analysis showed that both summary preventive health behavior and preventive service utilization variables were important factors in explaining a recent dental visit (model chi-square/221.4, P=.001) along with income, not having a removable prosthesis, and perceiving the need for dental care. This study showed that dental utilization is related to older people's participation in other preventive activities. When in contact with older people, health care professionals should consider current oral and general preventive health status and encourage appropriate referral for preventive activities.