Ethnicity, Child Sex, and the Likelihood of Marriage in Pregnancy: A Novel Analysis of Gender Inequity.

Objective: We assessed the association between fetal sex and the likelihood of marriage during pregnancy. Methods: We analyzed a cohort of 1,334,911 women who were unmarried at conception and had a live birth between 1990 and 2018 in Quebec, Canada. The exposure was fetal sex, determined by ultrasound. The outcome was marriage during pregnancy. We estimated hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of child sex with the likelihood of marriage during pregnancy according to region of origin. Results: Among women who were unmarried at conception, 13.1% of foreign-born women got married during pregnancy compared with 2.6% of Canadian-born women. Women from the Middle East and North Africa who were pregnant with boys were 1.13 times more likely to marry during pregnancy compared with women who were pregnant with girls (95% CI 1.02-1.26). There was no association among Canadian-born women. Conclusion: Women from some cultural minorities who are pregnant with boys may be more likely to marry during pregnancy in Western settings. Gender inequality may manifest as a preference for sons that influences the likelihood of marriage.

Infant mortality among Arabic-speakers in Quebec, Canada, 1989-2017.

BACKGROUND: We assessed trends in infant mortality for Arabic-speakers in Quebec, Canada between 1981 and 2017. METHODS: We computed infant mortality rates for Arabic versus French and English-speakers in Quebec over time. We used adjusted risk ratios (aRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to investigate trends among Arabic-speakers according to socioeconomic status, age, and cause of death. RESULTS: Infant mortality rates were 3.0 for Arabic-speakers and 5.1 for French and English-speakers per 1,000 live births. Infant mortality increased for Arabic-speakers between 1989-1995 and 2010-2017 (aRR 2.07; 95% CI, 1.04-4.12), but decreased for French and English-speakers (aRR 0.77; 95% CI, 0.73-0.81). The increase in infant mortality was greater for socioeconomically advantaged Arabic-speakers (aRR 2.52; 95% CI, 1.20-5.28) and early neonatal mortality (aRR 1.64; 95% CI, 0.98-2.76). DISCUSSION: Arabic-speakers in Quebec have a lower risk of infant mortality than French and English-speakers, but increasing infant mortality among Arabic-speakers is narrowing the gap.