The Birth Weights of Babies in the Cameroun Grasslands

Birthweight and sociobiological factors in Ilorin, Nigeria

“…The mean birthweight for Ilorin babies is generally similar to other series in equatorial Africa-for example, in rural Cameroon of 3119 kg (Lewis, 1974), in Tanzania of 3009 kg ± 0-435 (Bantje, 1982), and 2-850 ± 0-414 (Roberts & Tanner, 1963)-but they are clearly lower than those reported for British, e.g. 3-415 kg (Crosse, 1966) and American babies, 3-400 kg (Schaffer & Avery, 1971), as are other African series (e.g.…”

Sex ratio of live‐born Hausa infants

“…He also noted a sex ratio of 1.06 among 548558 hospital births in the same area. Similar sex ratios have also been reported from Uganda (Simpkiss 1968) and Cameroun (Lewis 1974). Commenting on the estimated sex ratio of 1.03 for Zaire by Romaniuk (196&), Ayeni (1975) suggested that the sex ratio in African populations probably varies from area to area and to assume a standard sex ratio for all populations of African origin may be unwarranted.…”

“…Thesc among 31 490 live-born Yoruba children delivered at two hospitals in Ibadan, a major educational town in western Nigeria. Simpkiss (19hX) reported a sex ratio of 1.12 for Bantu babies and 1.14 for non-Bantu babies in Uganda; Lewis (1974) noted a sex ratio of 1.12 among 8519 births in Cameroun. However.…”

We sent this letter to the author whose reply is below

“…Nloreover, if one cross-checks Visaria's data with other reports there appear to be some discrepancies. For example, he mentions the sex ratio of 10500 children born in various hospitals in Cameroun between 1951 and 1954 as 102.8, whereas Lewis (1974) while describing the birth weight of 8071 hospital births in Cameroun describes a sex ratio of 118. Similarly though Visaria emphasizes a low sex ratio among blacks, Table 4 of his article gives the sex ratio of 116 2 for 32 146 births in Gambia, a country neighbouring Nigeria with a 98% African population.…”