Factors influencing the sex ratio at birth in the United States from a historical perspective
Articles
Overview
published in
- JOURNAL OF BIOSOCIAL SCIENCE Journal
publication date
- January 2023
start page
- 1015
end page
- 1038
issue
- 6
volume
- 55
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
full text
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0021-9320
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1469-7599
abstract
- Many of the studies on the sex ratio at birth (SRB) are based on a small number of cases over a short period of time. Taking a multivariate approach to a dataset consisting of nearly 199 million birth records in the United States from 1968 to 2019, we present a detailed analysis of several possible factors that might affect the sex ratio at birth (SRB) and its patterns of variation. We found that race/ethnicity is the variable with the strongest influence on this index. Parental age, birth order and solar radiation also have a bearing on the SRB, albeit only to a moderate degree. The historical evolution of the SRB among Black and American Indian and Alaska Native populations remains unexplained.
Classification
subjects
- Economics
- Sociology
- Statistics
keywords
- sex ratio at birth; united states; race; ethnicity; mother's age; father's age; solar radiation; vitamin d; differences in skin tone; standardization