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Oral clefts and life style factors — A case-cohort study based on prospective Danish data

  • Perinatal Epidemiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

This study examines the association between oral clefts and first trimester maternal lifestyle factors based on prospective data from the Danish National Birth Cohort. The cohort includes approximately 100,000 pregnancies. In total 192 mothers gave birth to child with an oral cleft during 1997–2003. Information on risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, tea, coffee, cola, and food supplements was obtained during pregnancy for these and 828 randomly selected controls. We found that first trimester maternal smoking was associated with an increased risk of oral clefts (odds ratio (OR): 1.50; 95% confidence interval (CIs): 1.05, 2.14). Although not statistically significant, we also saw associations with first trimester consumption of alcohol (OR: 1.11; CIs: 0.79, 1.55), tea (OR: 1.31; CIs: 0.93, 1.86), and drinking more than 1 l of cola per week (OR: 1.40; CIs: 0.92, 2.12). Furthermore supplementation with ≥400 mcg folic acid daily during the entire first trimester (OR: 0.75; CIs: 0.46, 1.22) suggested an inverse associated with oral clefts, similar to our results on coffee drinking. No effects were found for smaller doses of folic acid, vitamin A, B6 or B12 in this study. The present study found an association between oral clefts and smoking and, although not conclusive, supports an association of oral cleft with alcohol.

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Abbreviations

CI:

confidence interval

CL(P):

Cleft lip with/without cleft palate

CP:

Cleft Palate

OR:

Odds Ratio

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Acknowledgments

The Danish National Research Foundation has established the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre that initiated and created the Danish National Birth Cohort. The Cohort is furthermore a result of a major grant from this Foundation. Additional support for the Danish National Birth Cohort is obtained from␣the Pharmacy Foundation, the Egmont Foundation, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation. The Center for the Prevention of Congenital Malformations is made possible by a grant from the Egmont Foundation. Furthermore we wish to thank the two National Institutes of Defects of Speech in Aarhus and Hellerup, Inge Eisensee, and Kenn Schultz Nielsen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Prevention of Congenital Malformations, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark

    Camilla Bille, Jeffrey C. Murray & Kaare Christensen

  2. Department of Epidemiology, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA

    Jorn Olsen

  3. Department of Statistics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark

    Werner Vach

  4. Maternal Nutrition Group, The Danish Epidemiology Science Center, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Vibeke Kildegaard Knudsen & Sjurdur Frodi Olsen

  5. Department of Clinical Genetics, Odense University Hospital, Odense C, Denmark

    Kirsten Rasmussen

  6. Department of Pediatrics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Jeffrey C. Murray

  7. National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anne Marie Nybo Andersen

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  1. Camilla Bille
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  2. Jorn Olsen
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  4. Vibeke Kildegaard Knudsen
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  7. Jeffrey C. Murray
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  9. Kaare Christensen
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Correspondence to Camilla Bille.

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Bille, C., Olsen, J., Vach, W. et al. Oral clefts and life style factors — A case-cohort study based on prospective Danish data. Eur J Epidemiol 22, 173–181 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-006-9099-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-006-9099-5

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