Parental age is related to the occurrence of cleft lip and palate in Brazilian populations

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the association of environmental risk factors, particularly paternal and maternal age, with gender and type of oral cleft in newborn with nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P). Methods: This study included 1,346 children with NSCL/P of two Brazilian Services for treatment of craniofacial deformities. Parental ages were classified into the following groups: maternal age <35, 36-39, and ≥40 years; paternal age <39 and ≥40 years. The data was analyzed with chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression analysis. The odds ratios were estimated with a 95% confidence interval. Results: Of the 1,346 children included in this study, CLP was the type of NSCL/P with highest prevalence, followed by, respectively, CL and CP. There was a greater occurrence of NSCL/P in males compared to females (55.8% versus 44.2%). CLP was more common in men, while the CL and CP were more prevalent in women (p=0.000). No association between maternal age and clefts was observed (p=0.747). However, there was evidence of association between father's aged ≥40 years old and NSCL/P (p=0.031). When patients with CP were analyzed separately, no association between the father's age and the child's gender (p=0.728) was observed, i.e. the female gender prevails among patients with CP, regardless of the father's age. Conclusions: This study showed that there were differences in the distribution of the non-syndromic cleft lip and/ or palate and the gender, and fathers aged ≥40 years old may have increased risk of oral cleft. Further studies involving different populations are needed for a better understanding of the effect of maternal and paternal ages as a risk factor for the occurrence of oral clefts.

Prevalence of cleft lip and palate in Brazilian children 2011 - 2015

“…Patients with orofacial clefts have additional risks of malnutrition and anaemia due to feeding problems 6 . Regarding mother's age, the majority were young, under the age of 29, a condition similar to that described in literature 13,22 . However, a study developed in Taiwan 18 found higher occurrence of cases of cleft lip and palate in mothers over the age of 35 years, but without statistical significance.…”

An ecological study on orofacial clefts in northeastern Brazil

“…Cleft palate alone is more common in women, while cleft palate and lip is more frequent among males, across various ethnic groups (20). In the present study, most children with clefts were males, corroborating similar results found in literature (2,(20)(21)(22)(23). Molecular and genetic studies are needed to better understand the differences between the types of oral clefts and gender (20).…”

Relationship Between Parental Age and Severity of Orofacial Clefts

“…This aligns with various studies that have reported increased congenital malformations in older parents. (6,15). A population-based study on Danish Facial Cleft Database, reported the influence of maternal and paternal ages on the risk of cleft lip with or without cleft palate increases with the advancing age of the other parent, and that the influence vanishes if the other parent is young.…”

“…Parental age has been proposed as a possible risk factor for OFC. (4) Previous studies conducted on the association between parental age and incidence of birth defects have yielded inconsistent results(5)(6,7). It is generally reported that advanced age may predispose chromosomes to irreversible changes and genetic alterations.…”