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Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women
In this paper, we examine whether variation in reproductive investment affects the health of Roma women using a dataset collected through original anthropological fieldwork among Roma women in Serbia. Data were collected in 2014–2016 in several Roma semi-urban settlements in central Serbia. The samp...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5707976/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29099752 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111337 |
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author | Čvorović, Jelena Coe, Kathryn |
author_facet | Čvorović, Jelena Coe, Kathryn |
author_sort | Čvorović, Jelena |
collection | PubMed |
description | In this paper, we examine whether variation in reproductive investment affects the health of Roma women using a dataset collected through original anthropological fieldwork among Roma women in Serbia. Data were collected in 2014–2016 in several Roma semi-urban settlements in central Serbia. The sample consisted of 468 Roma women, averaging 44 years of age. We collected demographic data (age, school levels, socioeconomic status), risk behaviors (smoking and alcohol consumption), marital status, and reproductive history variables (the timing of reproduction, the intensity of reproduction, reproductive effort and investment after birth), in addition to self-reported health, height, and weight. Data analyses showed that somatic, short-term costs of reproduction were revealed in this population, while evolutionary, long-term costs were unobservable—contrariwise, Roma women in poor health contributed more to the gene pool of the next generation than their healthy counterparts. Our findings appear to be consistent with simple trade-off models that suggest inverse relationships between reproductive effort and health. Thus, personal sacrifice—poor health as an outcome—seems crucial for greater reproductive success. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5707976 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57079762017-12-05 Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women Čvorović, Jelena Coe, Kathryn Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In this paper, we examine whether variation in reproductive investment affects the health of Roma women using a dataset collected through original anthropological fieldwork among Roma women in Serbia. Data were collected in 2014–2016 in several Roma semi-urban settlements in central Serbia. The sample consisted of 468 Roma women, averaging 44 years of age. We collected demographic data (age, school levels, socioeconomic status), risk behaviors (smoking and alcohol consumption), marital status, and reproductive history variables (the timing of reproduction, the intensity of reproduction, reproductive effort and investment after birth), in addition to self-reported health, height, and weight. Data analyses showed that somatic, short-term costs of reproduction were revealed in this population, while evolutionary, long-term costs were unobservable—contrariwise, Roma women in poor health contributed more to the gene pool of the next generation than their healthy counterparts. Our findings appear to be consistent with simple trade-off models that suggest inverse relationships between reproductive effort and health. Thus, personal sacrifice—poor health as an outcome—seems crucial for greater reproductive success. MDPI 2017-11-03 2017-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5707976/ /pubmed/29099752 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111337 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Čvorović, Jelena Coe, Kathryn Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women |
title | Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women |
title_full | Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women |
title_fullStr | Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women |
title_full_unstemmed | Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women |
title_short | Reproductive Investment and Health Costs in Roma Women |
title_sort | reproductive investment and health costs in roma women |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5707976/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29099752 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111337 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT cvorovicjelena reproductiveinvestmentandhealthcostsinromawomen AT coekathryn reproductiveinvestmentandhealthcostsinromawomen |