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      Girls start life on an uneven playing field : Evidence from lowland rural Nepal

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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.

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              A general and simple method for obtainingR2from generalized linear mixed-effects models

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Evol Med Public Health
                Evol Med Public Health
                emph
                Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
                Oxford University Press
                2050-6201
                2022
                04 August 2022
                04 August 2022
                : 10
                : 1
                : 339-351
                Affiliations
                Department of Geography, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK
                Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health , London WC1N 1EH, UK
                Institute for Global Health, University College London , London WC1N 1EH, UK
                Mother and Infant Research Activities , Kathmandu, Nepal
                Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health , London WC1N 1EH, UK
                Department of Geography, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK
                Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health , London WC1N 1EH, UK
                Author notes
                Corresponding author. Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK. Tel: +44 207 905 2104; E-mail: jonathan.wells@ 123456ucl.ac.uk

                Alice M. Reid and Jonathan C K Wells are joint senior authors.

                Article
                eoac029
                10.1093/emph/eoac029
                9384836
                35990287
                885344ba-6d8e-489b-9337-0ce4f66385b4
                © 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.

                History
                : 16 August 2021
                : 10 June 2022
                : 17 August 2022
                Page count
                Pages: 13
                Funding
                Funded by: Leverhulme Trust, DOI 10.13039/501100000275;
                Award ID: RPG-2017-264
                Funded by: National Institute for Health Research, DOI 10.13039/501100000272;
                Categories
                Original Research Article
                AcademicSubjects/MED00860
                AcademicSubjects/SCI01130

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