Determinants of gender preference and its association with reproductive behaviour among pregnant women

Abstract

Background: The changes in sex ratio reflect underlying socioeconomic, cultural patterns of a society. One of the serious concerns in India is declining female sex ratio. Aims: To know the factors determining gender preference by pregnant women, various reasons for such preference and its relation with reproductive behavior. Settings and Design: Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Medical College and District Women hospital, Amravati. Material and methods: The cross sectional study was conducted on 400 pregnant women who were interviewed by systematic random sampling after informed consent.  Statistical analysis: Binary Logistic regression analysis by enter method using SPSS version 16.0. Results: Out of fifteen independent variables on logistic regression, six variables were significantly associated with male child preference. The reasons for male child preference told by women were old age security (29.71%) followed by keeping family line (23.42%). Conclusions: The religion, age, socio-economic status, gravida, number of abortions and number of male children were having the strongest impact on male child preference.