Natural selection associated with birth weight I. Selection intensity and selective deaths from birth to one month of life
- 1 February 1981
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Annals of Human Genetics
- Vol. 45 (1) , 55-63
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1809.1981.tb00306.x
Abstract
Differential mortality as a function of birth weight was studied up to the 4th week of life in all single births in Italy in 1974. It was found that: (i) Both selection intensity and selective mortality are much higher with increasing immaturity. (ii) For babies born at term or after 8 months of pregnancy selection intensity tends to relax as early as one week after birth, while for those born after 7 months selection is at work for a longer period. (iii) Selective mortality, on the other hand, keeps increasing after birth but its relevance is relatively decreasing since average mortality after birth continues to decrease.Keywords
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