재미 한국 유배우 부인의 재생산주기 (초경-재경)에 관한 연구

The objective of the study is to figure out the status of reproductive health and general characteristics related to maternal health for Korean-Americans living in Los Angeles. We collected data from the married women who wanted no more additional child birth and were attending the Family Planning Clinic of Koryo Health Foundation in Los Angeles during 1988. There were 494 women met the eligibility requirement for this study. The results are summarized below. 1. In the age distribution of the women who desired no more additional child birth, women 30-34 age group constituted the largest proportion at 36.6 percent ; the mean age of women was 35.1915.55. The mean number of child birth was 1.77, and the proportion of the women by number of child birth were 35.2 percent for one children, 50.1 percent for two children 10.5 percent for three children, and 2.6 percent for four children. All of the women experienced pregnancy at least once, and mean number of pregnancy was 3.42. The mean number of total experience of induced abortion was 1.56. and 76.7 percent of these women had experience with induced abortions. To prevent further pregnancies, 90.1 percent of the women were utilizing the contraceptive methods, and the highest proportion by the contraceptive methods was condoms(53.7%), 9.3 percent in spermicides, 8.7 percent in IUDs, 8.7 percent in rhythm method, and 6.9 percent in oral pills. 2. The mean age of women at each stage of reproductive life cycle were 14.74 years at time of menarche, 24.55 years at time of marriage, 26.60 years at time of the first child birth, and 28.75 years at time of the last child birth. In age distribution of the women by birth cohort (Group I : birth cohort 1940-1954, Group H : birth cohort 1955-1970), the mean menar-cheal age of the women was 14.96 years in group I , and 14.53 years in group H . Mean age at time of marriage was 25.01 years in group I and 24.08 years in group H . Mean child birth age of the women by birth cohort was 27.19 years In group I and 26.01 years in Group II for the first child birth and 30.07 years in group I and 27.45 years in group II for the last child birth. The total length of reproductive life cycle from menarche to menopause (presumed to be at 49 of age years) was 34.26 years. The len-gth of phase I (from menarche to marriage) was 9.81 years, while phase H (marriage to first birth) was 2.05 years, and phase Ill (first birth to last birth) was 2. 15 years, and the last phase of reproductive life cycle, phase IV (last birth to menopause) was 20.25 years. The proportion of each phase 10 total length of reproductive life cycle was 28.6 percent, 6.0 percent 6.3 percent, and 59.t percent respectively. In the tendency of each phase in reproductive life cycle by birth cohort (group I , U ), the length of phase I, II , III of birth cohort group II was diminished in comparison with those of birth cohort group I , but the length of phase IV was extended by 2.38 years. 3. Among the women, the mean number of total pregnancy by birth cohort group was 2.01 in group I and 1.10 in Group II, and mean number of child birth was 1.97 in group I and 1.58 in group II. In terms of pregnancy was-tage rate by birth cohort group, among the total pregnancy of birth cohort group I , 51.8 percent of the cases resulted in induced abortions or spontaneous abortions whils 48.2 percent resulted in live births, and 42.2 percent or total pregnancy in group II resulted in pregnancy wastage and 57.8 percent of the cases resulted in live births.