A retrospective cohort study of mortality among children with birth defects in New York State, 1983–2006

✍ Scribed by Ying Wang; Jiaqi Hu; Charlotte M. Druschel

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 125 KB
• Volume: 88
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1542-0752
• DOI: 10.1002/bdra.20711

✦ Synopsis

BACKGROUND: Birth defects, which occur in about 3% of live births in the United States each year, have remained the leading cause of infant mortality, although the infant mortality rate in the United States has decreased significantly over the past decades. The objective of this study was to conduct a retrospective cohort study with long-term follow-up of the children in New York State Congenital Malformations Registry (CMR) for up to 24 years on their mortality status to evaluate the mortality risk of children with birth defects by age at death, birth defect category and other possible contributing factors. METHODS: Children born in 1983-2006 with reportable birth defects were included in the study cohort. A sub-cohort was also constructed containing children born in 1983-2006 with selected major birth defects that are relatively severe congenital conditions identified at birth. New York State live births in 1983-2006 were used as the comparison population. The deaths among the study cohort were identified through linking CMR cases to the death certificate files. A Poisson regression model was used to calculate mortality rate ratios (mortality risk) adjusting for selected infant and maternal risk factors. RESULTS: Compared to children without birth defects, the overall mortality risk was 6.7 times higher for children with any of the reportable birth defects and 23.6 times higher for children with selected major birth defects. The mortality risk decreased with increasing age of children. The top 5 most significantly high mortality risks were found among infants in neonatal period with anencephaly (