Abstract
To assess the impact of occupational factors on the sex ratio of dentists' children. A randomly selected 501 Iranian dentists participated in a telephone interview. The participants were contacted by their mobile number to answer questions about demographic variables (gender, age, marriage status), practice-related variables (year of graduation as general or specialist dentist, years of clinical work, working hours, average number of radiographs taken in a day, and spouse's job), and questions about their children (number, gender and date of birth of each child). Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square tests served for statistical evaluation. Of all participating dentists, 71% were men, about two-thirds were 35- to 50-year olds, and 89% were married. In total, the dentists had 768 children; about 21% had no child. Of all the children, 54% were boys (overall sex ratio=1.17). The offspring sex ratio was 1.13 among male dentists, 1.50 for female dentists, and 1.44 when both parents were dentists. Higher percentages of boys were prevalent among female dentists, younger dentists, and general dental practitioners (p<0.008). Demographic and practice-related factors showed some impact on proportions of both sexes of dentists' children in this study. However, the result needs evaluation in further studies.
Highlights
Objective To assess the impact of occupational factors on the sex ratio of dentists’ children
The participants were contacted by their mobile number to answer questions about demographic variables, practice-related variables, and questions about their children
Higher percentages of boys were prevalent among female dentists, younger dentists, and general dental practitioners (p \ 0.008)
Summary
Of all 501 dentists participating, 71 % were men, about two-thirds were 35–50 years old, and the majority were married (Table 1). That younger women produce more boys than girls [15, 16] may in part explain the difference in the offspring sex ratio of female dentists (1.5) and male dentists (1.13), since in this study younger dentists were more often women than men. The offspring sex ratio here (1.17) was higher than that of the whole population in Iran (1.04) [17] This difference may be due to the unique characteristics of the dental profession, explaining any effect of job type on children’s sex ratio is very difficult. Other interesting findings of this study are the percentage of dentists without any children (21 %) and of dentists’ being single (9 %), which are both higher than in the whole population: 14 % and 4 % [18] This difference needs to be studied at a deeper level from the sociological point of view
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