Open AccessTwinning during the pandemic
Author(s) -
Ralph Catalano,
Tim A. Bruckner,
Joan A. Casey,
Alison Gemmill,
Claire E. Margerison,
Terry Hartig
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
evolution, medicine and public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.427
H-Index - 22
ISSN - 2050-6201
DOI - 10.1093/emph/eoab033
Subject(s) - odds , pandemic , demography , in utero , population , odds ratio , medicine , gestation , pregnancy , obstetrics , biology , covid-19 , fetus , disease , logistic regression , genetics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , sociology
The suspicion that a population stressor as profound as the COVID-19 pandemic would increase preterm birth among cohorts in gestation at its outset has not been supported by data collected in 2020. An evolutionary perspective on this circumstance suggests that natural selection in utero , induced by the onset of the pandemic, caused pregnancies that would otherwise have produced a preterm birth to end early in gestation as spontaneous abortions. We test this possibility using the odds of a live-born twin among male births in Norway as an indicator of the depth of selection in birth cohorts.