Patterns and causes of excess female mortality among children in developing countries.

In all developed countries today males have higher mortality than females at all ages but in many developing countries the reverse is true for part or all of the age range 1-44 years (1-3). For adults, one major cause of higher female mortality IS maternal mortality; clearly, for children there must be other causes. This article reviews the major hypotheses concerning the causes of higher female mortality in childhood and tests these hypotheses by analysing the contrasting characteristics of the situations in which girls or boys have higher mortality.