Prevalence of congenital abnormalities in Turkish school children.

19750 school children, ages 6 to 15 years, were examined by the authors of this study, 1,220 (6.18%) had congenital abnormalities. In this group, 4.23% were boys and 1.88% were girls. Case histories revealed inbreeding amongst the parents (families) of children with congenital malformation to be 8.9% and 8.2% for the rest of the families in this study. There were 27 different congenital abnormalities identified, with prevalence rates of 0.05/1,000 to 15.85/1,000. The most prevalent abnormalities were umbilical hernia (15.85/1000), inguinal hernia (14.50/1,000), pectus carinatum and excavatum (7.68/1,000), undescended testes (9.00/1,000 boys), congenital nevus (3.54/1,000), retractile testis (4.45/1,000 boys), pilonidal sinus (2.63/1,000), pes planus (2.28/1,000), and hemangioma (1.16/1,000). Of the 19,750 children, 70 had multiple anomalies (3.75/1,000).

Physical growth measurements of 18,719 primary school children living in Adana, Turkey.

Height and weight measurements of 18,719 healthy children were obtained and the results were compared with those obtained from children living in several regions of Turkey and the USA. The results of these measurements differed significantly. This study demonstrates that local growth standards should be established and used in the evaluation of children.