Skip Navigation



Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on June 24, 2005
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/dei097
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF ) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
20/9/2489    most recent
dei097v1
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Polasek, O.
Right arrow Articles by Rudan, I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Polasek, O.
Right arrow Articles by Rudan, I.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received February 3, 2005
Revised March 29, 2005
Accepted April 22, 2005

Brief report

Sex ratio at birth and war in Croatia (1991-1995)

O. Polasek 1*, I. Kolcic 2, B. Kolaric 3, and I. Rudan 1

1 Department of Medical Statistics, Epidemiology and Medical Informatics, ‘Andrija Stampar’ School of Public Health, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Rockefellerova 4, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, UK, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK
2 Department of Medical Statistics, Epidemiology and Medical Informatics, ‘Andrija Stampar’ School of Public Health, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Rockefellerova 4, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, UK
3 Croatian Institute of Public Health, Rockefellerova 7, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
O. Polasek, E-mail: opolasek{at}snz.hr


  Abstract

BACKGROUND: We have investigated sex ratio at birth (expressed as the proportion of males) in Croatia before, during and after the war (1991-1995). METHODS: Data for each of 21 counties in Croatia (861 516 births) were collected and pooled into two groups: the first, consisting of the counties unaffected by the war, and the second, comprising the counties affected by war events. Odds ratios of being born as a male were calculated, with being born in a county exposed to war defined as the risk factor. RESULTS: No significant deviations from the expected ratio of 0.514 were found in pre-war, wartime or post-war period at the national level. The ratio was 0.515 during the pre-war and wartime periods, and 0.514 in the post-war period. Comparison of the ratios in the three periods in both affected and unaffected counties revealed no significant increase in the sex ratio. The only significant increase in the sex ratio was registered in two counties unaffected by the warfare. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that warfare did not cause a detectable increase of the sex ratio at birth in Croatia, in contrast to what might have been predicted based on earlier reports in the literature.

Keywords: birth; male proportion; sex ratio; war.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.