Factors associated with congenital anomalies in Addis Ababa and the Amhara Region, Ethiopia: a case-control study

Abstract

BackgroundThe early stage of embryo development is extremely vulnerable to various teratogenic factors, leading to congenital anomalies. In Ethiopia, a significant number of babies are born with congenital anomalies, but the risk factors for the anomalies have never been studied. Understanding the specific risk factors for congenital anomalies is very essential to provide health education that aims at creating awareness and establishing preventive strategic plan/s. The main objective of this study was to assess the risk factors associated with congenital anomalies in Addis Ababa and the Amhara Region, Ethiopia.MethodsA case-control study was conducted from January 1- June 30, 2015. The participants were recruited at the purposively selected hospitals in Addis Ababa and the Amhara Region. A total of 207 cases and 207 controls were included in the study. Cases were neonates, infants, and children 0-11 months of age with external and internal major congenital anomalies diagnosed by pediatricians. Controls were neonates, infants, and children 0-11 months of age without external and internal anomalies. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, exposure to risk factors, and reproductive history were collected by face to face interviews with children’s mothers/caregivers using a structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regression was employed to explore risk factors associated with the occurrence of the problems.ResultsAbout 87.4% of the children were below 6 months, and 12.6% were between 6 and 11 months. The majority (59.9%) of the children were male, with the M: F sex ratio of 1.49. The mean age of the mothers was 26 years (16-45 years). Unidentified medication use during early pregnancy (AOR = 4.595; 95% CI: 1.868-11.301, P-value = 0.001), maternal alcohol drinking (AOR = 2.394; 95% CI: 1.212-4.726, P-value = 0.012), and exposure to chemicals (AOR = 9.964; 95% CI = 1.238-80.193, P-value = 0.031) were significantly associated with the occurrence of congenital anomalies. Iron folate use (AOR = 0.051; 95% CI: 0.010-0.260, P-value = < 0.001) before and during early pregnancy had a protective effect on congenital anomaly.ConclusionUnidentified medication use, alcohol drinking during early pregnancy, and exposure to chemicals had a significant association with the occurrence of congenital anomalies, whereas iron folate use before and during early pregnancy had a protective effect from congenital anomalies.

Modifiable risk factors of congenital malformations in bale zone hospitals, Southeast Ethiopia: an unmatched case-control study

“…Bianchi F et al also reported that the association between birth defects and being exposed to textile dye [25]. In agreement with our results, the authors reported that being exposed to chemicals during pregnancy played a significant role in having an infant with a major birth defect [13,29].…”

“…The incidence of congenital malformation varies widely from country to country [2] and from region to region, with a range of 1.73 to 6.3% [12][13][14]. For example, it was reported to be 1.7% in Brazil [15], 2.22% in Eastern India [16], 3.63% in Iraq [17], 6.3% in Nigeria 6.3% [14].…”

Prevalence and patterns of birth defects among newborns in Southwestern Ethiopia: Retrospective study

“…Unlike the present study where the NTDs were found to be the most prevalent defects, a study done in china indicated that septal defects (138.2 per 10,000) were the most prevalent followed by congenital hip dislocation (652 per 10,000) [26]. Unlike the presents, the study done in Addis Ababa and Amhara region by Mola et al, 2018 [19] revealed that were the most frequent the Oro-facial defects (34.2%) followed by Neural tube defects (30.8%).…”

Alcohol consumption and its associated factors among pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis' as given in the submission system

“…In the final review, articles were published from 10 countries among 46 countries were included. Of these studies, eleven studies were found from Ethiopia [13,19,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], nine articles were from South Africa [20,22,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46], five articles were from Nigeria [18,[47][48][49][50], two studies were from Ghana [51,52], one article was from Kenya [53], three articles were from Tanzania [54][55][56], two studies were from Uganda [21,57] one study was from Burkina Faso [58], and one article was from Zambia [59]. Regarding the study designs, twenty-five (83%) of them were cross-sectional, three studies (3.5%) were cohort and three articles (3.5%) were case-control.…”