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Neonatal death and birth order

Neonatal death and birth order BY WILLIAM H. JAMES The Galton Laboratory, University College London In this paper no account will be taken of the problem of disentangling the effects of birth order from those of maternal age. Effects will be referred to as ‘positive’ when, in the population as a whole, the probability of neonatal death (that is, death within one month of birth) increases with birth order, and they will be called ‘real’ when there is evidence that there are secular changes within individual women of the propensity to bear an infant that will suffer neonatal death (NND). There is very considerablevariation between women in their chance of bearing such an infant (Gardiner & Yerushalmy, 1939), and I shall call women who are highly susceptible ‘NNDprone ’. Usually the investigation of birth order effects is prompted by the observation that R(j),the proportion of affected cases in the j t h birth rank, varies withj. In the case of NND, it has been observed that R(j)decreases from j = 1 to j = 2 or 3, and thereafter increases (Yerushalmy, 1938; Heady, Daly & Morris, 1955; Burns, 1942). This pattern is similar to the variation of stillbirth rates with parity. Usually such http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Annals of Human Genetics Wiley

Neonatal death and birth order

Annals of Human Genetics , Volume 33 (4) – May 1, 1970

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References (14)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0003-4800
eISSN
1469-1809
DOI
10.1111/j.1469-1809.1970.tb01665.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

BY WILLIAM H. JAMES The Galton Laboratory, University College London In this paper no account will be taken of the problem of disentangling the effects of birth order from those of maternal age. Effects will be referred to as ‘positive’ when, in the population as a whole, the probability of neonatal death (that is, death within one month of birth) increases with birth order, and they will be called ‘real’ when there is evidence that there are secular changes within individual women of the propensity to bear an infant that will suffer neonatal death (NND). There is very considerablevariation between women in their chance of bearing such an infant (Gardiner & Yerushalmy, 1939), and I shall call women who are highly susceptible ‘NNDprone ’. Usually the investigation of birth order effects is prompted by the observation that R(j),the proportion of affected cases in the j t h birth rank, varies withj. In the case of NND, it has been observed that R(j)decreases from j = 1 to j = 2 or 3, and thereafter increases (Yerushalmy, 1938; Heady, Daly & Morris, 1955; Burns, 1942). This pattern is similar to the variation of stillbirth rates with parity. Usually such

Journal

Annals of Human GeneticsWiley

Published: May 1, 1970

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