Epidemiology of birth defects in high-prevalence areas of China / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the levels of prevalence and to describe the epidemiological features of birth defects in high-prevalence areas in China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A population-based retrospective study was conducted in two counties of Shanxi province that including birth defects among fetuses and live births born after 20 weeks' gestational age in the study areas from 2002 through 2004.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>During 2002 - 2004, the prevalence of birth defects was 844.2 per 10 000 births in study areas and the first five main birth defects were inguinal hernia (182.2 per 10,000 births), anencephaly (104.4 per 10 000 births), congenital mental retardation (79.4 per 10,000 births), congenital heart diseases (73.2 per 10,000 births) and spina bifida (63.9 per 10,000 births). These five main birth defects accounted for about 60% of total birth defect cases. Inguinal hernia, undescended testicle, congenital mental retardation were usually not included for statistical analysis on birth defect. Excluding these birth defects, the prevalence of birth defects in study areas was 537.2 per 10,000 births and the first five main birth defects were anencephaly, congenital heart diseases, spina bifida, hydrocephaly (40.5 per 10 000 births) and encephalocele (31.2 per 10 000 births). The male prevalence of birth defects was 966.2 per 10 000 births, which was significantly higher than prevalence in females. The prevalence rates of birth defects for maternal age groups under 20 years old and over 30 years old were remarkably higher than those for 20-24 year and 25-29 year old mothers. The teenage mothers were at higher risk of having a child with neural tube defects(NTDs) or congenital heart diseases. Prevalence rates under 20 year maternal age group were 408.8 and 188.7 per 10 000 births for NTDs and congenital heart diseases respectively, whereas corresponding rates were 204.8 and 91.0 per 10 000 births for groups over 30 years of age. The prevalence rates increased with increasing gravidity or parity.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This study showed that the patterns of birth defects in study areas were very different from those of other areas, with an unusually high prevalence of NTDs. The study also suggested that both young and advanced mothers were at increased risk of having a child with a birth defect.</p>

Study on the socio-economic risk factors on birth defects in Lvliang district of Shanxi province / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the risk factors in high prevalence district of birth defects (BD) to provide evidence for intervention development.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Quantitative analysis had been carried out based on the investigation at three counties in Shanxi province. 491 useable questionnaires had been collected with a response rate as 94.6%. Binary logistic regression was performed to analyze the risk factors of BD.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Data from logistic regression analyses revealed that factors as: the status of family income, knowledge on healthy birth and rearing, behavior and illness during pregnancy were influencing the occurrence of BD, with OR values as 0.535, 3.265, 0.403 and 1.379 respectively. Better family income and knowledge on BD were negatively (P values are 0.000 and 0.001 respectively), while illness during pregnancy and alcohol intake of the husbands were positively correlated (P values are 0.005 and 0.012 respectively) to the occurrence of BD.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Measures as accelerating the development of local economy, providing education on BD knowledge to the couples, changing negative life style and improving the health status would reduce the risk of BD. Preconceptional-periconceptional care seemed to be the new idea for healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.</p>

Housing and Health / 环境与健康杂志

Nowadays more and more attention has been paid to the problems about housing and health in China. Some investigations showed that people spent almost fourteen hours in their homes every day so the houses become the major places of daily activities. It is very important to solve the problems of what is the relation between the housing and health and how the housing influences the health of the people living in it. In the present paper the author summarized the overseas and domestic researches on the housing and health and pointed out that the research on housing and health in China is just in the preliminary phase.