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

Abstract

Background: Congenital malformations are structural, functional, and metabolic defects that develop during the organogenesis period and present at birth or later in life. There has been little research on congenital malformations in Ethiopia, knowledge on the incidence of birth defects at birth is unknown and the etiologies of the anomalies are limited. This study, therefore, aimed to assess the modifiable risks of congenital anomalies among women in Bale zone hospitals, Ethiopia. Methods: An unmatched case-control study was conducted from February 2018 to January 2019 in the Bale zone; namely Goba referral hospital, Robe, Ginnir and Dolomena hospitals. A total of 409 women were selected. Mothers who gave birth with any type of congenital malformation were assigned as cases and those who gave live births without any congenital abnormalities were assigned as controls. Controls were selected by the lottery method from the labor ward. For each case, two consecutive controls were included. Data were entered into Epi-data 3.1 and exported into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 for analysis. Logistic regression was conducted to analyze the data. Results: Alarmingly, women who had been exposed to pesticides during the current pregnancy were two times more prone to give congenital malformed infants than their counterparts (AOR = 3.19; 95% CI = 1.31, 10.96). Additionally, those women who chewed khat during the periconceptional period were two times more likely to have congenital malformed infants as compared to women who did not engage in this activity (AOR = 2.40; 95% CI = 1.11, 5.19). Conclusions: Urgent attention needs to be given by public health professionals and services to khat chewing and maternal exposure to pesticides during pregnancy to reduce the risk of congenital malformations.

Risk factors associated with congenital anomalies among newborns in southwestern Ethiopia: A case-control study

“…In line with the present study, studies done in Iraq and Egypt show that maternal smoking either actual or passive smoking in the first three months of pregnancy was strongly associated with the occurrence of birth defects specifically cleft lip with or without cleft palate [ 14 , 15 ]. Congruent with our findings, a study done in southeastern Ethiopia, Bale zone, Oromia region by Mekonnen et al [ 16 ] reported that maternal exposure to pesticides during early pregnancy had a strong association with the occurrence of CAs with the frequency of 13.2% in exposed compared to 4.2% in unexposed.…”

Predictors of Congenital Anomalies Among Newborns in Arsi Zone Public Hospitals, Southeast Ethiopia: a Case-control Study

“…In this study, the mother who has been exposed to chemicals during the current pregnancy was 4.8 times more prone to have infants with congenital anomalies compared to their corresponding counterparts. Our nding is strongly supported by previous studies carried out by different researchers elsewhere (15,18,(25)(26)(27).…”

“…This is in line with the previous studies conducted in Ethiopia (12,15) and California (17). On the other hand, a very recent casecontrol study conducted in Bale Zone, Southeast, Ethiopia indicated that drinking alcohol had hardly any signi cant association with the occurrence of congenital anomalies (18). This might be due to the differences in drinking alcohol cultures.…”

“…Women who did not take folic acid supplementation during pregnancy had about 3.25 times more chances to have infants with congenital anomalies compared to their counterparts. Our nding is in line with studies done elsewhere reported that folic acid supplementation had a protective effect against congenital anomalies (10,12,15,18,28). In spite of the valuable protective role of folic acid, in Ethiopia, the use and coverage for folic acid supplementation is very limited (29).…”

The effect of substance use during pregnancy on neonatal outcomes in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Despite the aforementioned adverse impacts, national evidence disclosed considerable prevalence of khat [25] and alcohol use [35] during pregnancy in Ethiopia. Furthermore, there are multiple primary studies [28,29,30,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46] showing the delivery of preterm, low birth weight and congenitally malformed neonates among alcohol drinkers, khat chewers, cigarette smokers and narghile users during pregnancy in the country. However, there is no pooled prior evidence regarding the effect of using these substances during pregnancy on birth outcome.…”