Offspring sex ratios among male tobacco smokers in Khartoum, Sudan

Objectives: to explore any association between paternal tobacco smoking and the offspring secondary sex ratio, as well as the effect of duration and intensity of smoking on gender ratio.methods: the cross-sectional study was conducted around major public areas within khartoum, sudan, between august and september 2008 and involved 458 married sudanese males with offsprings. the sample consisted of 111 (24.2%) smokers and 347 (75.8%) non-smokers who were evaluated using a questionnaire on their offspring gender. data on duration and intensity of smoking was also collected from the smokers' group. spss 16 was used for statistical purposes. chi-square test was used to test for significance of associations between variables. analysis of variance (anova) was used to test for significance between ratios.results: the number of cigarettes smoked in males increases the likelihood of having a male offspring. the gender ratio in non-smokers was 1.11, while it was 1.15 in smokers.conclusion: paternal smoking increases the offspring sex ratio