ABSTRACT
Objective: Male live births occur in excess of female live births and their ratio (M/F) is usually expressed as male divided by total births. The value of M/F varies, declining with stress. Israel has been shown to have a relatively stable M/F. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether there were any racial or religious differences in M/F in Israel, and to compare with totals for Europe and North America.
Methods: Annual data for male and female live births was available from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics for the period 2002-2011. Excel was used for data entry, overall analysis and charting. For race, data was available as Jews and others, and Arabs. For religion, data was available as Jews and Moslems.
Results: There were a total of 1523956 live births. Overall M/F was 0.5127 (95% CI 0.5119-0.5135). There were no significant differences between the races and no significant trends with time. M/F is mid-way between that of Europe and the North American.
Conclusion: The psychological and psychiatric effects of stress in Israel are well documented. However, there was no apparent effect on M/F that is manifested as racial or religious differences in M/F. This could be due to equal levels of stress in all groups or insufficient levels of stress or insufficient births to affect M/F.
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