Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117955

Jeanne Beauchamp Hewitt, PhD, RN, College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, PO Box 413, Miwaukee, WI 53122, 414-229-5463, jbhewitt@uwm.edu

Environmental contamination or workplace exposures have been shown to alter the ratio of males to females at birth, usually observed as a decrease in the proportion of males from the expected 1048 males per 1000 females (2002 data, all races). U.S. data show the highest sex ratio (SR) at birth to occur among Asian/Pacific Islanders (1065), followed by whites (1050), and the lowest among Native Americans (1023). The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the SR of Native American and white infants in 17 counties in Wisconsin to each other and the U.S. race-specific norms. The 17 non-urban counties correspond to areas in which three tribal communities reside. Birth record data for the years 1990-2001 were obtained for all births of Native American infants and for white infants from one county and a 5% random sample of white infants from the remaining 16 counties. Due to relatively small numbers of Native American births, data were aggregated over the 12-year study period. When reporting on county-specific data, we aggregated data from several contiguous counties if an individual county had fewer than 50 Native births. The overall SR for the 17 counties was 1041. Sex ratios for Native infants varied between 678 and 1359 males per 1000 females. Sex ratios for white infants ranged between 873 and 1105 males per 1000 females. We report county- and race-specific SR findings in relation to existing data on environmental contaminants and discuss the implications of using these data for surveillance purposes.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to

• Describe racial differences in sex ratios.
• Discuss at least one benefit and one limitation of using sex ratios for environmental health surveillance purposes.
• Interpret sex ratio data.

Keywords: Native Americans, Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.