Sex ratio at birth in Viet Nam 2006

ABSTRACT

Background: In recent years the sex ratio at birth in Viet Nam is imbalanced, with the number of male births being higher than that of female births. Objectives: To describe the trend and distribution of sex ratio at birth by time and geography, and investigate the relationship between sex ratio at birth and abortion ratio in 2006. Subjects and method: The study was conducted in 3.840 communal health stations, 723 district hospitals/polyclinics and 132 provincial and central hospitals with total of 1,095,064 births, occupied 78% of births over the nation in 2006. Result: The male/female sex ratio varies between areas, with the ratio being higher in rural than in urban and higher in the North \u2013East and North-Central regions than in the rest of country (p<0.05). Conclusion: There has been the clear imbalance of sex ratio at birth since 2002 (varying from 110 to 113), as well as the significant imbalance of sex ratio at birth by provinces. High imbalance of sex ratio at birth is related to the high abortion rate in these provinces. Viet Nam needs to implement strong measures/actions to avoid the same situation as in China and India.