Trends in cohort fertility of the Dariusleut Hutterite population.
A church book containing vital information on Dariusleut Hutterite families enabled us to trace the life course of individual women. We conducted a retrospective cohort study on the women born in the Dariusleut sect for the period 1901-1965, focusing on their marriage and reproductive histories. The subjects were grouped into 5-year birth cohorts from 1901-1905 to 1961-1965. The marital age-specific fertility rate (MASFR) increased from the 1901-1905 cohort to the 1926-1930 cohort and then began to decrease, particularly at the ages of 30-39 years. The initial increase in MASFR was not reflected directly in the cohort mean of the total number of children per woman because of a concurrent delay in age at marriage. Marriage delay, however, could not explain the drastic decrease, which started in the 1931-35 cohort, in the total number of children per woman; the decrease in MASFR at the ages of 30 years and older was considered a major reason for the recent changes in Hutterite fertility. The causes of the recent fertility decrease of Hutterites at higher ages remain to be investigated.
Sato
T
T
Department of Hygiene, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Nonaka
K
K
Miura
T
T
Peter
K
K
D000328:Adult; D001723:Birth Rate / Q000208:ethnology*; D002835:Christianity; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003268:Contraception Behavior; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D008423:Maternal Age; D008875:Middle Aged; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States