South Africa health status and boy births

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"There are several ways to find out whether a population's health is improving or if people in a particular country, city or region are getting sicker. These measures are known as sentinel health events or indicators.

One example of such an indicator is a country's maternal mortality ratio – the more women who die during pregnancy, child birth or soon afterwards, the poorer the general population's health. Take the comparative figures from South Africa and Japan. In 2010 it was estimated that 300 women died for every 100,000 live births. In Japan this number was just five.

South Africa's maternal mortality rate has remained high, but the years between 2003 and 2014 were generally good for South Africans' health and the country's economy. Life expectancy rose, and the number of children dying at the age of five or younger dropped.

Also during this time, the proportion of boys born in the country increased significantly. 

Our curiosity was piqued by this fact. So we set out to establish whether this proportion – sometimes defined as the sex ratio at birth – might be a sentinel health indicator. We wanted to know whether more boys had been born because of the country's improving health and/or economic conditions..."

Learn more: 

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-11-boy-births-reveal-south-africa.html