Marphatia, Akanksha A;
Saville, Naomi S;
Manandhar, Dharma S;
Cortina-Borja, Mario;
Reid, Alice M;
Wells, Jonathan CK;
(2022)
Girls start life on an uneven playing field Evidence from lowland rural Nepal.
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
, 10
(1)
pp. 339-351.
10.1093/emph/eoac029.
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Abstract
Background and objectives: Evolutionary research on the sex ratio at birth (SRB) has focused on explaining variability within and between populations, and whether parental fitness is maximized by producing daughters or sons. We tested predictors of SRB in a low-income setting, to understand whether girls differ from boys in their likelihood of being born into families with the capacity to invest in them, which has implications for their future health and fitness. Methodology: We used data from a cluster randomized control trial from lowland rural Nepal (16 115 mother-child dyads). We applied principal component analysis to extract two composite indices reflecting maternal socio-economic and reproductive (parity, age) capital. We fitted mixed-effects logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios of having a girl in association with these individual factors and indices. Results: The SRB was 112. Compared to the global reference SRB (105), there were seven missing girls per 100 boys. Uneducated, early-marrying, poorer and shorter mothers were more likely to give birth to girls. Analysing composite maternal indices, lower socio-economic and reproductive capital were independently associated with a greater likelihood of having a girl. Conclusions and implications: In this population, girls start life facing composite disadvantages, being more likely than boys to be born to mothers with lower socio-economic status and reproductive capital. Both physiological and behavioural mechanisms may contribute to these epidemiological associations. Differential early exposure by sex to maternal factors may underpin intergenerational cycles of gender inequality, mediated by developmental trajectory, education and socio-economic status.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Girls start life on an uneven playing field Evidence from lowland rural Nepal |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/emph/eoac029 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoac029 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Foundation for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Evolutionary Biology, Public, Environmental & Occupational Health, TRIVERS-WILLARD HYPOTHESIS, SEX-RATIO, GENDER INEQUALITY, SON PREFERENCE, ADULT HEALTH, SOUTH-ASIA, INDIA, FERTILITY, MORTALITY, SELECTION |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10155233 |
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