Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Obstet Gynecol. May 10, 2017; 6(2): 8-15
Published online May 10, 2017. doi: 10.5317/wjog.v6.i2.8
Observed prevalence and risk factors of birth defects in Shanghai, China
Min Yang, Xiao-Xia An, Hui-Juan Wang, Ji-Mei Wang
Min Yang, Xiao-Xia An, Hui-Juan Wang, Ji-Mei Wang, Department of Neonatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 200011, China
Author contributions: Yang M proposed the study and wrote the first draft; An XX analyzed the data; Wang HJ collected the data; Wang JM contributed to the design.
Institutional review board statement: The data used to fit these models were obtained from the medical record system of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University.
Informed consent statement: All the participants for “birth defect registration card” consent to take part in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no personal, organizational or financial conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: The data used in the study may be requested from Ji-Mei Wang (wjm8219@163.com).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ji-Mei Wang, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Neonatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University, 419 Fangxie Road, Shanghai 200011, China. wjm8219@163.com
Telephone: +86-21-33189900-8219
Received: March 2, 2017
Peer-review started: March 2, 2017
First decision: March 28, 2017
Revised: April 15, 2017
Accepted: April 16, 2017
Article in press: April 16, 2017
Published online: May 10, 2017
Abstract
AIM

To investigate the prevalence and related risk factors of birth defects in Shanghai.

METHODS

This report describes a population-based study of all births at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, China from January 2008 to December 2014. A logistic regression analysis was used to identify the parameters that are independently associated with birth defects.

RESULTS

A total of 82814 births, including 824 cases of birth defects, were recorded. The rate of birth defects was 0.995 per 100 births. In the multivariable regression analysis, neonatal birth defects were likely to be associated with higher gravidity [odds ratio (OR), 1.099, 95%CI: 1.024-1.178], premature birth (OR = 1.905, 95%CI: 1.501-2.418), low birth weight (OR = 3.844, 95%CI: 3.004-4.919), twin births or higher order multiple pregnancies (OR = 1.477, 95%CI: 1.107-1.969), cesarean delivery (OR = 1.184, 95%CI: 1.016-1.380) and registration as part of a migrant population (OR = 1.380, 95%CI: 1.167-1.632). Female infants were less likely to have birth defects than male infants (OR = 0.710, 95%CI: 0.616-0.818).

CONCLUSION

Higher gravidity, premature birth, lower birth weight, twin births or higher order multiple pregnancies, and registration as part of a migrant population are independent predictors of birth defects.

Keywords: Birth defects, Prevalence, Risk factors, Shanghai

Core tip: We evaluated the prevalence and the related risk factors of birth defects in Shanghai. The ten most frequent birth defects in newborns each year were congenital heart defects, polydactyly and syndactyly, hypospadias, orofacial clefts, congenital ear malformation, Down syndrome, strephenopodia/strephexopodia, intestinal atresia/stenosis, chromosomal disorders, and kidney malformations. We also observed that higher gravidity, premature birth, lower birth weight, cesarean delivery, twin or multiple births and being a member of a migrant population are high risk factors of birth defects according to a large patient database.