Résumé :
|
[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST x3sb8R0x. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. Objective-Demographic studies in various industrialised countries have shown a decline in male births in the latter half of the 20th century from the expected ratio of 0.515 (males/total), This study analyses trends in this ratio over the period 1890 to 1995 in Malta, and also analyses this ratio for Western European countries for the period 1990-1995. Design-Births subdivided by sex were obtained from official Maltese publications. European countries were grouped according to geographical latitude by banding countries into three groups : Northern Mediterranean, Central European and Scandinavian. Births by sex for these countries were also analysed for the period 1990-1995. Results-No decline in the ratio of male births to total births was noted in Malta over the period 1916-1995. However, the ratio was higher than expected (n=151 766, ratio=0.517 (95% confidence intervals (95% CI) : 0.514,0.519). Moreover, during the period 1890-1899 (n=66 874), the ratio was 0.523 (95% CI : 0.519,0.527), even higher than observed during the 20th century (X2=8.3, p=0.004). Analysis of European births showed a much higher ratio of male births in the south of Europe than in the north (X2=87.2, p
|