International Journal of Health & Allied Sciences

LETTER TO EDITOR
Year
: 2013  |  Volume : 2  |  Issue : 3  |  Page : 220--222

Ten year trend of sex ratio at birth in a public hospital of an Indian state with known skewed sex ratio


Sandeep Sachdeva1, Smiti Nanda2, Ruchi Sachdeva3,  
1 Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B. D. Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak, India
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pt. B. D. Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak, India
3 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Pt. B. D. Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak, India

Correspondence Address:
Sandeep Sachdeva
Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B. D. Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak
India




How to cite this article:
Sachdeva S, Nanda S, Sachdeva R. Ten year trend of sex ratio at birth in a public hospital of an Indian state with known skewed sex ratio .Int J Health Allied Sci 2013;2:220-222


How to cite this URL:
Sachdeva S, Nanda S, Sachdeva R. Ten year trend of sex ratio at birth in a public hospital of an Indian state with known skewed sex ratio . Int J Health Allied Sci [serial online] 2013 [cited 2024 Mar 29 ];2:220-222
Available from: https://www.ijhas.in/text.asp?2013/2/3/220/120600


Full Text



Sir,

In all human populations, there is a fairly stable sex ratio at birth (SRB), which is approximately 104 to 106 boys per hundred girls. Hypothetically, this is a natural mechanism to circumvent increased male fetal loss than female fetuses during gestation. Evidences suggest that unless there is conscious intervention by humans, the SRB will not change even over a century. [1] This is has been found to be true in most of the developed countries. In a study from USA (1975-2002), M/F sex ratio of live birth was 1.05. [2]

The disparity between male and female births was observed for the first time in 1662 by John Graunt and has been the object of scientific curiosity ever since. [3] SRB is an important demographic indicator that has been distorted in some regions of the world, especially in Asia due to strong son preferences and widely prevalent sex selective practices. In context of India, A study from large hospitals of Delhi (1993-2002) reported SRB as 1.15 and another from Jabalpur showed that M:F ratio was 1.12 with 888 females/1000 males. [4],[5] In contrast, data from a govt. medical college in Kerala revealed SRB as 958 girls/1000 males. [6] SRB for the state of Haryana hovered between 837 to 848 (2004-10) according to population estimates of sample registration system, far below the national average of 905 girls/1000 boys. [7] According to Civil Registration System (CRS) with 96% birth registration in the state of Haryana (total births: 5,63,556) during 2011, SRB stood at 833 girls/1000 boys. Similarly, child (0-6 years) sex ratio according to Census-2011 has been low and alarming i.e. 914 for India, 830 (Haryana) and 807 for Rohtak, which is in contrast to high favorable figure in the southern state of India i.e. Kerala (959 girls/1000 boys). [8]

Northern states of India particularly Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir have a skewed sex ratio unfavorable for females. With this background, present study was undertaken to analyze time trend of sex ratio at births (SRB) occurring in a government teaching hospital of Haryana. This cross-sectional, retrospective, record-based study was carried out in a government medical college hospital of northern India that caters to an average daily out-patient (OPD) attendance of 5000 patients of rural and urban background, mainly from lower/middle socio-economic strata of the society and supported by 1750 in-patient beds with more than 80,000 annual admissions. Till recently, this was the only public-funded referral institute of the state. Due to non-establishment of electronic health management information system (HMIS) in the institution, monthly abstracts of live births of 10 calendar years (2002-2011) were extracted manually by investigators from log books maintained in the labor room during Jan-Mar 2012, and data management was done using MS excel sheet. Still births were not included in this study.

Total live births during the reference period ranged from 5830 to 9165, suggesting increased institutional deliveries over the years due enhanced promotion for the same in the country. Sex ratio at birth is shown in [Table 1]. M:F ratio ranged from 1.14 to 1.22. Pooled result of 76,179 births for the reference period suggested that there were 837 girls/1000 boys. The proportion of male births was consistently found to be higher over a 10 year time-frame [Figure 1].

To conclude, answer for a social problem lies in identifying and effectively implementing biological, social, medical, and legal solutions. The institutional study may not be reflection of community, but it does mirror the situation to an extent. We acknowledge few limitations as there was no information on other co-variables, and also it has been documented that sample size of birth observations should be more than 100,000 to obtain robust SRB within narrow 95% confidence range. [9]{Figure 1}{Table 1}

 Acknowledgment



Authors wish to thank staff from the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics, PGIMS, Rohtak, India.

References

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