Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T04:06:30.623Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE IMPACT OF MATERNAL BIRTH MONTH ON REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE: CONTROLLING FOR SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CONFOUNDERS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2009

ARIANE KEMKES
ARIANE KEMKES
Affiliation:
Tholius Research, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Based on a 1900 census sample of 34,166 post-reproductive females (≥45 years), the birth month effect was put to the test, for both lifetime fertility as well as child survival, controlling for maternal birth cohort (1826–1835, 1836–1845, 1846–1855), Duncan's SEI, urbanity, nativity, literacy and marital duration. Testing for potential cohort effects did not indicate a temporal trend in fertility by maternal birth month (seasonal Mann-Kendall test, p=0.578), while a minute increase in offspring survival was detected (p<0.001, Sen's estimator of slope=0.02, 95% CI=0.02 to 0.03). Further analyses of the maternal birth month effect on child survival were therefore seized. For lifetime fertility, ANOVA results indicated that maternal birth month was a major predictor for total offspring count (F11, 33606=1809.0, p<0.001), accounting for 37.2% of the total variability. In addition to main effects, a statistically significant interaction effect was observed (F538, 33606=2.2, p<0.001), with a corresponding effect size of η2=0.40. Planned contrasts revealed that birth-month-specific differences in fertility achieved statistical significance (F11, 31798=1712.9, p<0.001), while post-hoc multiple comparisons for literacy and nativity displayed an inverse relationship with fertility, which meets demographic expectations. Controlling for all factors of interest, models of cohort-specific offspring counts (independent ANOVAs for 1826–1835: F157, 3467=26.3, p<0.001; 1836–1845: F182, 10299=75.5, p<0.001; 1846–1855: F199, 19859=137.9, p<0.001) indicated that women born in the first half of the year (particularly, January, February, April and May) achieved above-average parity, while those born in the latter half (namely, July, October, November and December) displayed markedly lower fertility averages. These monthly disparities are in line with previous observations and appear to be linked to seasonal optimal ripening of the oocyte or seasonal preovulatory over-ripeness ovopathy (Jongbloet, 1992).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 177 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramson, J. H. (2004) WINPEPI (PEPI-for-Windows): computer programs for epidemiologists. Epidemiologic Perspectives and Innovations 1, 6.Google Scholar
Alter, G. (1997) Infant and child mortality in the United States and Canada. In Bideau, A., Desjardins, B. & Brignoli, H. P. (eds) Infant and Child Mortality in the Past. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 91–108.Google Scholar
Barker, D. J. P. (1998) Mothers, Babies and Health in Later Life. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Bateson, P. & Martin, P. (1999) Design for a Life: How Behaviour Develops. Jonathan Cape, London.Google Scholar
Beise, J. & Voland, E. (2002) Differential infant mortality viewed from an evolutionary biological perspective. History of the Family 7, 515–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boldsen, J. L. (1992) Season of birth and recalled age at menarche. Journal of Biosocial Science 24, 167–174.Google Scholar
Bongaarts, J. (1978) A framework for analyzing the proximate determinants of fertility. Population and Development Review 4, 105–132.Google Scholar
Borg, M. O. (1989) The income–fertility relationship: effect of the net price of a child. Demography 26, 301–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cagnacci, A., Pansini, F. S., Bacchi-Modena, A., Giulini, N., Mollica, G., De Aloysio, D., Vadora, E. & Volpe, A. (2005) Season of birth influences the timing of menopause. Human Reproduction 20, 2190–2193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clutton-Brock, T. H. (ed.) (1990) Reproductive Success: Studies of Individual Variation in Contrasting Breeding Systems. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Condran, G. A. (1984) An evaluation of estimates of underenumeration in the census and the age pattern of mortality, Philadelphia, 1880. Demography 21, 53–69.Google Scholar
d'Addio, A. C. & d'Ercole, M. M. (2005) Trends and determinants of fertility rates in OECD countries: the role of policies. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 27.Google Scholar
Davies, M. J. & Norman, R. J. (2002) Programming and reproductive functioning. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism 13, 386–392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Bruin, J. P., Dorland, M., Bruinse, H. W., Spliet, W., Nikkels, P. G. & Te Velde, E. R. (1998) Foetal growth retardation as a cause of impaired ovarian development. Early Human Development 51, 39–46.Google Scholar
Duncan, O. D. (1961) A socioeconomic index for all occupations. In Reiss, J. (ed.) Occupations and Social Status. Free Press of Glencoe, New York, pp. 109–138.Google Scholar
Easterlin, R. A. (1971) Does human fertility adjust to the environment? American Economic Review 61, 399–407.Google Scholar
Efird, J. T. & Nielsen, S. S. (2008) A method to model season of birth as a surrogate environmental risk factor for disease. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 5, 49–53.Google Scholar
Gardner, T. (2001) The slow wave: the changing residential status of cities and suburbs in the United States, 1850–1940. Journal of Urban History 27, 293–312.Google Scholar
Gloria-Bottini, F., Bottini, N., La Torre, M., Magrini, A., Bergamaschi, A. & Bottini, E. (2008) The effects of genetic and seasonal factors on reproductive success. Fertility and Sterility 89, 1090–1094.Google Scholar
Gloria-Bottini, F., Lucarini, N., Palmarino, R., La Torre, M., Amante, A. & Bottini, E. (1997) ACP1 and human adaptability II. Association with season of conception. Human Genetics 101, 158–164.Google Scholar
Hacker, J. D. (2003) Rethinking the ‘early’ decline of marital fertility in the United States. Demography 40, 605–620.Google Scholar
Haines, M. R. (1996) Long-term marriage patterns in the United States from colonial times to the present. History of the Family 1, 15–39.Google Scholar
Haines, M. R. (1998) Estimated life tables for the United States, 1850–1900. Historical Methods 31, 149–169.Google Scholar
Henry, L. (1980) Fertility of marriages: a new method of measurement. A decomposition by both age and marriage duration. Population Studies 30, 85–106.Google Scholar
Hocher, B., Slowinski, T., Bauer, C. & Halle, H. (2001) The advanced foetal programming hypothesis. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 16, 1298–1299.Google Scholar
Huber, S., Didham, R. & Fieder, M. (2008) Month of birth and offspring count of women: data from the Southern hemisphere. Human Reproduction 23, 1187–1192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huber, S. & Fieder, M. (2008) Strong association between birth month and reproductive performance of Vietnamese women. American Journal of Human Biology DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.20799.Google Scholar
Huber, S., Fieder, M., Wallner, B., Moser, G. & Arnold, W. (2004) Brief communication: birth month influences reproductive performance in contemporary women. Human Reproduction 19, 1081–1082.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ibáñez, L., Potau, N. & de Zegher, F. (1999) Endocrinology and metabolism after premature pubarche in girls. Acta Paediatrica Supplement 88, 73–77.Google ScholarPubMed
Ibáñez, L., Potau, N., Enriquez, G. & de Zegher, F. (2000) Reduced uterine and ovarian size in adolescent girls born small for gestational age. Pediatric Research 47, 575–577.Google Scholar
Jasso, G. (1985) Marital coital frequency and the passage of time: estimating the separate effects of spouses' ages and marital duration, birth and marriage cohorts, and period influences. American Sociological Review 50, 224–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jongbloet, P. H. (1992) Seasonal fluctuation of pathological and optimum conceptions, maternal subfecundity, gender dimorphism and survival. Collegium Anthropologicum 16, 99–107.Google Scholar
Jongbloet, P. H., Groenewoud, H. M. M., Huber, S., Fieder, M. & Roeleveld, N. (2007) Month of birth related to fecundity and childlessness among contemporary women. Human Biology 79, 479–490.Google Scholar
King, M. & Ruggles, S. (1990) American immigration, fertility, and race. Suicide at the turn of the century. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 20, 347–369.Google Scholar
Lam, D. A. & Miron, J. A. (1994) Global patterns of seasonal variation in human fertility. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 709, 9–28.Google Scholar
Landale, N. S. & Tolnay, S. E. (1993) Generation, ethnicity, and marriage: historical patterns in the northern United States. Demography 30, 103–126.Google Scholar
Lummaa, V. & Tremblay, M. (2003) Month of birth predicted reproductive success and fitness in pre-modern Canadian women. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 270, 2355–2361.Google Scholar
Matchock, R. L., Susman, E. J. & Brown, F. M. (2004) Seasonal rhythms of menarche in the United States: correlates to menarcheal age, birth age, and birth month. Women's Health Issues 14, 184–192.Google Scholar
Menet, F., Eakin, J., Stuart, M. & Rafferty, H. (2000) Month of birth and effect on literacy. Behaviour and Referral to Psychological Service Educational Psychology in Practice 16, 225–234.Google Scholar
Morgan, S. P., Watkins, S. C. & Ewbank, D. C. (1994) Generating Americans: ethnic differences in fertility. In Watkins, S. C. (ed.) After Ellis Island: Newcomers and Natives in the 1910 Census. Russell Sage, New York, pp. 83–124.Google Scholar
Nonaka, K., Desjardins, B., Légaré, J., Charbonneau, H. & Miura, T. (1990) Effects of maternal birth season on birth seasonality in the Canadian population during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Human Biology 62, 701–717.Google Scholar
Osmond, C. & Barker, D. J. (2000) Foetal, infant, and childhood growth are predictors of coronary heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension in adult men and women. Environmental Health Perspectives 108, 545–553.Google Scholar
Preston, S. H. & Haines, M. R. (1991) Fatal Years: Child Mortality in Late Nineteenth Century America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Ruggles, S., Sobek, M., Alexander, T., Fitch, C. A., Goeken, R., Hall, P. K., King, M. & Ronnander, C. (2008) Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 4.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minnesota Population Center, Minneapolis, MN. URL: http://usa.ipums.org/usa/Google Scholar
Ruggles, S., Sobek, M., Fitch, C. A., Hall, P. K. & Ronnander, C. (1998) Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 2.0., Volume 1: User's Guide. Historical Census Projects, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.Google Scholar
Skirbekk, V., Kohler, H. P. & Prskawetz, A. (2004) Birth month, school graduation, and the timing of births and marriages. Demography 41, 547–568.Google Scholar
Smits, L. J., Jongbloet, P. H. & Zielhuis, G. A. (2001) Season of birth and reproductive performance: an analysis of family reconstitutions of 800 women born in the Netherlands at the end of the 19th century. Chronobiology International 18, 525–539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smits, L. J., Van Poppel, F. W. A., Verduin, J. A., Jongbloet, P. H., Straatman, H. & Zielhuis, G. A. (1997) Is fecundability associated with month of birth? An analysis of 19th and early 20th century family reconstitution data from The Netherlands. Human Reproduction 12, 2572–2578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vinovskis, M. A. (1976) Socioeconomic determinants of interstate fertility differentials in the United States in 1850 and 1860. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 6, 375–396.Google Scholar