Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Abstract BACKGROUND: Sex ratio is an important social indicator measuring the status and equality of
female in society. The falling sex ratio of our country is a demographic disaster that is waiting to
happen and is a matter of grave concern. Perception of gender by mothers or families has long‑term
implications on how children are nurtured during their lives. This study was done to understand
mother’s preference for the gender of the child and their concerns about the same.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational cross‑sectional study was carried out using a
semi‑structured questionnaire. Two hundred and thirty‑four mothers were interviewed. Frequencies
and percentages were calculated. Pearson’s Chi‑square test was used to check the significance of
the association.
RESULTS: Study results depict that 26.47% of the mothers who were already having a male
child still preferred son. Preference for son was 24.52% and 48.61% among earning mothers
and nonearning mothers, respectively. Out of 206 mothers said that they would prefer male child.
Reasons cited were as follows: sons carry family name forward (30.6%), having daughters leads to
increased expenditure (20.9%), daughters are subjected to different problem in their lifetime mainly
violence (11.7%), and sons supported their parents in old age (10.7%).
CONCLUSION: Preference for male child was found to be equally prevalent in both urban and rural
areas. Mothers should be educated about the effect of declining sex ratio along with financial capacity
building of women and providing social security to senior citizens which was the main reason for
son preference .The impact of gender imbalance on individuals, families, and on society has to be
emphasized at every possible point of contact with health‑care delivery system.

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Teaching and learning process is increasingly metamorphosing from the traditional
chalk and talk to the modern dynamism in the information and communication technology. Medical
education is no exception to this dynamism more especially in the teaching of gross anatomy, which
serves as one of the bases of understanding the human structure.
OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to determine the gender preference of preclinical medical
students on the use of traditional (chalk and talk) and PowerPoint presentation in the teaching of
gross anatomy.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This was cross‑sectional and prospective study, which was conducted
among preclinical medical students in the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. Using simple random
techniques, a questionnaire was circulated among 280 medical students, where 247 students filled
the questionnaire appropriately. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM
Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA) to find the method preferred by the students among other things.
RESULTS: Majority of the preclinical medical students in the University of Maiduguri preferred
PowerPoint method in the teaching of gross anatomy over the conventional methods. The Cronbach
alpha value of 0.76 was obtained which is an acceptable level of internal consistency. A statistically
significant association was found between gender and preferred method of lecture delivery on the
clarity of lecture content where females prefer the conventional method of lecture delivery whereas
males prefer the PowerPoint method, On the reproducibility of text and diagram, females prefer
PowerPoint method of teaching gross anatomy while males prefer the conventional method of
teaching gross anatomy.
CONCLUSION: There are gender preferences with regard to clarity of lecture contents and
reproducibility of text and diagram. It was also revealed from this study that majority of the preclinical
medical students in the University of Maiduguri prefer PowerPoint presentation over the traditional
chalk and talk method in most of the questions ask.