{"title":"The Sex Ratio at Birth Is Higher in Māori than in Non-Māori Populations in Aotearoa New Zealand.","authors":"Victor Grech","doi":"10.14712/18059694.2023.11","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aims: </strong>The sex ratio at birth approximates 0.515 (male : total, M/T), with 515 boys per 485 girls. Many factors have been shown to influence M/T including acute and chronic stress. Increasing maternal age is associated with a decline in M/T. In Aotearoa New Zealand, circa 15% of the population identify as of Māori heritage. This populationis generally considered to be socioeconomically disadvantaged. This study analysed M/T for Māori and non-Māori M/T births in Aotearoa New Zealand and relates these to mean maternal age at delivery.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Live births by sex and maternal age at delivery were available from the website of Tatauranga Aotearoa Stats NZ for 1997-2021.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This study analysed 1,474,905 births (28.4% Māori) Pooled data shows that Māori M/T is significantly higher than non-Māori M/T (chi = 6.8, p = 0.009). Mean maternal age at delivery was less for Māori mothers but this was not statistically significant.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Several studies have shown that M/T is decreased in socioeconomically deprived populations, and for this reason Māori M/T is expected to be lower and not higher than non-Māori M/T. A lower mean maternal age at delivery might have explained the M/T differences noted in this analysis but this was not a statistically significant difference.</p>","PeriodicalId":35758,"journal":{"name":"Acta medica (Hradec Kralove)","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Acta medica (Hradec Kralove)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.14712/18059694.2023.11","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Medicine","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Aims: The sex ratio at birth approximates 0.515 (male : total, M/T), with 515 boys per 485 girls. Many factors have been shown to influence M/T including acute and chronic stress. Increasing maternal age is associated with a decline in M/T. In Aotearoa New Zealand, circa 15% of the population identify as of Māori heritage. This populationis generally considered to be socioeconomically disadvantaged. This study analysed M/T for Māori and non-Māori M/T births in Aotearoa New Zealand and relates these to mean maternal age at delivery.
Methods: Live births by sex and maternal age at delivery were available from the website of Tatauranga Aotearoa Stats NZ for 1997-2021.
Results: This study analysed 1,474,905 births (28.4% Māori) Pooled data shows that Māori M/T is significantly higher than non-Māori M/T (chi = 6.8, p = 0.009). Mean maternal age at delivery was less for Māori mothers but this was not statistically significant.
Conclusions: Several studies have shown that M/T is decreased in socioeconomically deprived populations, and for this reason Māori M/T is expected to be lower and not higher than non-Māori M/T. A lower mean maternal age at delivery might have explained the M/T differences noted in this analysis but this was not a statistically significant difference.
期刊介绍:
Acta Medica (Hradec Králové) is a multidisciplinary medical journal published by the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové - Karolinum Press, the publishing house of Charles University. The journal is peer-reviewed and published quarterly in both paper and electronic form. The language of Acta Medica is English. Offerings include review articles, original articles, brief communications, case reports, announcements and notices. The journal was founded in 1958 under the title "A Collection of Scientific Works of the Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove."