Citation

Grech V, Scherb H. Med. Princ. Pract. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Karger Publishers)

DOI

10.1159/000521338

PMID

34875654

Abstract

OBJECTIVE In humans, males are born slightly in excess of females. Many factors have been shown to affect this ratio, including stressful events such as terrorist attacks. Two shootings in 2019 occurred in early August 2019 in the United States: in the Oregon District in Dayton, Montgomery county, Ohio and in El Paso county, Texas. This study was carried out in order to identify whether there were any effects on sex ratio at birth at state or county level 3-5 months later. Subject and Methods Births by sex, month of birth (2015-2019) and county were obtained for Ohio and Texas from the website of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ordinary linear logistic regression was used to assess the time trend in the probability of boys and to investigate changes in the trend functions. Poisson regression (SAS GENMOD) and linear logistic regression using SAS procedure LOGISTIC was applied.

RESULTS This study analysed 2,623,714 live births, 1,939,938 in Texas (sex odds (SO) 1.044) and 683,776 in Ohio (SO 1.045). The only significant effect noted was seasonality (month) at the state level.

CONCLUSION It has been postulated that male foetal loss in pregnant women during stressful periods may occur in accordance with the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis. Several studies have found significant effects after terrorist attacks in the United States (as well as in other countries) but this study failed to do so. This may be due to several reasons including underpowered datasets and the possibility that populations may be becoming relatively immured to these events.

Language: en