Seasonal variation in months of birth of patients with microtia in a Chinese population

Exploring the seasonality of birth defects in the New York State Congenital Malformations Registry

“…We found no evidence of seasonality for the other twenty‐five NBDPN birth defects groups in the entire live birth cohort. These findings are in agreement with other negative seasonality findings for esophageal atresia (Kyyrönene et al,1988; Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990), rectal atresia or stenosis (Kyyrönene and Hemminki,1988; Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990), obstructive genitourinary defects (Bound et al,1989), hypospadias (Castilla et al,1990; Skriver et al,2004), omphalocele (Bound et al,1989), and diaphragmatic hernia (Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990; Torfs et al,1992). Mixed results have been published for anencephaly (Sandahl,1977a; Jorde et al,1984; Fraser et al,1986; Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990; Siffel et al,2005), spina bifida (Sandahl,1977a; Jorde et al,1984; Fraser et al,1986; Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990; Siffel et al,2005; Beyer et al,2011), aortic valve stenosis (Bound et al,1989; Bosshardt et al,2005; Siffel et al,2005), hypoplastic left heart syndrome (Tikkanen and Heinonen,1994; Siffel et al,2005; Eghtesady et al,2011), oral clefts (Sandahl,1977b; Coupland and Coupland,1988; Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990; Amidei et al,1994; Fraser and Gwyn,1998; Cooper et al,2000; Siffel et al,2005; Krost and Schubert,2006; Elliott et al,2008; Gregg et al,2008; de la Vega and Lopez‐Cepero,2009; Chung et al,2011), esophageal atresia (Kyyrönene et al,1988; Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990), rectal atresia or stenosis (Kyyrönene and Hemminki,1988; Bound et al,1989; Castilla et al,1990), obstructive genitourinary defects (Bound et al,1989), hypospadias (Castilla et al,1990; Skriver et al,2004), gastroschisis (de la Vega and Lopez‐Cepero,2009; Waller et al,2010), omphalocele (Bound et al,1989), congenital hip dislocation (Chen et al,1970; Heikkilä,…”

“…Because some studies have reported sex differences in seasonality of birth defects, we performed stratified analyses by infant sex. Our findings of sex differences in seasonal patterns agree with earlier findings in cleft lip and palate (Fraser and Gwyn,1998; Krost and Schubert,2006) and microtia (Liu et al,2011). Whereas births in females with congenital hip dislocation (Heikkilä,1984) and Down syndrome (Puri and Singh,1995) displayed seasonal variation in prior studies, we found positive Hewitt‐Rogerson tests in males for both groups.…”

“…These findings are consistent with other seasonality analyses of ventricular septal defect, endocardial cushion defect, and renal defect (Bound et al,1989). There have been mixed results of seasonality reported in the literature for encephalocele (Castilla et al,1990; Roux et al,2009), anotia and microtia (Castilla et al,1990; Liu et al,2011), pulmonary valve atresia or stenosis (Bound et al,1989; Bosshardt et al,2005; Siffel et al,2005), biliary atresia (Caton et al,2004; The et al, 2004; Wada et al,2007; Yoon et al,1997; Livesey et al,2009), and trisomy 18 (Gadow et al,2006; Tonelli et al,2006). In contrast, there have been only negative reports of hydrocephalus (Sandahl, 1977b; Castilla et al,1990), congenital cataract (Haargaard et al,2005), transposition of the great arteries (Bound et al,1989), coarctation of the aorta (Bound et al,1989; Tikkanen and Heinonen,1993), and limb reduction (Bound et al,1989).…”

“…Because seasonal patterns of births varied by maternal sociodemographics in a study in metropolitan Atlanta (Darrow et al,2009), and because some studies have reported sex differences in seasonality of birth defects (Heikkilä,1984; Puri and Singh,1995; Fraser and Gwyn,1998; Krost and Schubert,2006; Liu et al,2011), we also examined seasonality within strata of maternal age (<20, 20–34, ≥35 years), race or ethnicity (non‐Hispanic white, non‐Hispanic black, Hispanic), education level (<12, 12–15, ≥16 years), and infant sex (male, female). The Walter‐Elwood test was limited to case groups with at least 50 subjects, and the Hewitt‐Rogerson and chi‐square tests were limited to case groups with at least 20 subjects.…”

Long-term trends and seasonality of omphalocele during 1996–2010 in China: a retrospective analysis based on the hospital-based birth defects surveillance system

“…Recent studies suggest that many types of congenital abnormalities display seasonal variation. For instance, birth time peaks of microtia occur in autumn and winter [ 23 ], anencephaly has a birth peak in March to August [ 24 ], pulmonary valve abnormalities peak in September [ 24 ], and congenital cataracts have a conception peak in April [ 9 ]. One retrospective study reported the seasonality of omphalocele with peak season from July to December in the state of Washington [ 14 ]; however, Hornemann et al [ 13 ] found no difference in the seasonal incidence of omphalocele between summer (April to September) and winter (January to March, October to December) in northern Germany.…”