The birth weight and survival of Ghanaian twins

Summary 1 286 Ghanaian twin births are analysed with regard to birth weight, maternal age, panty and survival. They are compared with similar European data. 2 There is a significant but unexplained shortage of femalefemale twins. 3 The differences between the Ghanaian and European twin weights (0.2 1b.) are much less than the differences between the weights of single babies (0.9 1b.). 4 The very high correlation (r= 0.8) between parity and mother's age in the data is due to the association between twinning and these variables, The high parity of the Ghanaian women may account for their high twin rate. 5 The mortality rate of Ghanaian twins (15%) is similar to that of Italian twins and lower than that for some English twins (21%). This is shown to be largely due to the lower proportion of low-weight Ghanaian twin babies. It is suggested that this may be because twinning is a more natural phenomenon in Ghanaian than in European women.