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Observable variations in human sex ratio at birth
- Source :
- PLoS Computational Biology, Vol 17, Iss 12, p e1009586 (2021), PLoS Computational Biology
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2021.
-
Abstract
- The human sex ratio at birth (SRB), defined as the ratio between the number of newborn boys to the total number of newborns, is typically slightly greater than 1/2 (more boys than girls) and tends to vary across different geographical regions and time periods. In this large-scale study, we sought to validate previously-reported associations and test new hypotheses using statistical analysis of two very large datasets incorporating electronic medical records (EMRs). One of the datasets represents over half (∼ 150 million) of the US population for over 8 years (IBM Watson Health MarketScan insurance claims) while another covers the entire Swedish population (∼ 9 million) for over 30 years (the Swedish National Patient Register). After testing more than 100 hypotheses, we showed that neither dataset supported models in which the SRB changed seasonally or in response to variations in ambient temperature. However, increased levels of a diverse array of air and water pollutants, were associated with lower SRBs, including increased levels of industrial and agricultural activity, which served as proxies for water pollution. Moreover, some exogenous factors generally considered to be environmental toxins turned out to induce higher SRBs. Finally, we identified new factors with signals for either higher or lower SRBs. In all cases, the effect sizes were modest but highly statistically significant owing to the large sizes of the two datasets. We suggest that while it was unlikely that the associations have arisen from sex-specific selection mechanisms, they are still useful for the purpose of public health surveillance if they can be corroborated by empirical evidences.<br />Author summary The human sex ratio at birth (SRB), usually slightly greater than 1/2, have been reported to vary in response to a wide array of exogenous factors. In the literature, many such factors have been posited to be associated with higher or lower SRBs, but the studies conducted so far have focused on no more than a few factors at a time and used far smaller datasets, thus prone to generating spurious correlations. We performed a series of statistical tests on 2 large, country-wide health datasets representing the United States and Sweden to investigate associations between putative exogenous factors and the SRB, and were able to validate a set of previously-reported associations while also discovering new signals. We propose to interpret these results simply as public health indicators awaiting further empirical confirmation rather than as implicated in (adaptive) sexual selection mechanisms.
- Subjects :
- Male
0106 biological sciences
Sexual Selection
Population Dynamics
Global Health
01 natural sciences
Geographical locations
5. Gender equality
Public health surveillance
Natural Selection
Medicine and Health Sciences
Cluster Analysis
Public and Occupational Health
Biology (General)
0303 health sciences
education.field_of_study
Ecology
Water pollutants
Pollution
Regression
3. Good health
Europe
Computational Theory and Mathematics
Modeling and Simulation
Sexual selection
Regression Analysis
Female
Public Health
Sex ratio
Research Article
Evolutionary Processes
QH301-705.5
Population
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
Human sex ratio
03 medical and health sciences
Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Swedish population
Population Metrics
Electronic health record
Air Pollution
Genetics
Humans
Sex Ratio
European Union
education
Molecular Biology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
030304 developmental biology
Sweden
Pollutant
Evolutionary Biology
Models, Statistical
Population Biology
business.industry
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Water Pollution
Infant, Newborn
Biology and Life Sciences
Neonates
Computational Biology
United States
13. Climate action
Agriculture
North America
People and places
business
Ibm watson
Developmental Biology
Demography
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 15537358
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS Computational Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2b67aa5bf8adb5919ff5f147aae58064