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Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality of congenital birth defects from 1990 to 2019

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Abstract

The study aims to estimate the trends in incidence and mortality of congenital birth defects at global, regional, and national levels from 1990 to 2019. Annual incident cases, age-standardized incidence rates (ASIRs), deaths, and age-standardized mortality rates (ASMRs) of congenital birth defects during 1990–2019 were collected from Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019. We calculated percentage of relative changes and estimated annual percentage changes (EAPCs) to quantify temporal trends, and explored potential influence factors of EAPCs using Pearson correlation. Globally, total incident cases and deaths of congenital birth defects were 8.52 million and 0.55 million in 2019. Congenital heart anomalies were the major category of congenital birth defects worldwide in 2019. From 1990 to 2019, the ASIR remained stable (EAPC=0.01, 95% CI −0.03 to 0.05), whereas the ASMR decreased (EAPC=−1.79, 95% CI −1.84 to −1.74). The most pronounced increase in ASIR occurred in low-middle socio-demographic index (SDI) regions (EAPC=0.03, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.06). The number of deaths increased by 14.49% in low SDI regions and the ASMR increased in Southern Sub-Saharan Africa (EAPC=0.17, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.33). Negative correlations of EAPCs in ASIRs and ASMRs with SDI and universal health coverage index values in 2019 were detected at national levels.

  Conclusions: Congenital birth defects are an important child health problem. There is urgent need to strengthen surveillance and detection of congenital birth defects, build and improve maternal and child healthcare capacity, and promote treatment and rehabilitation, especially in resource-limited countries.

What is known:

• Congenital birth defects were the fourth leading cause of death among children under 5 years in 2019, accounting for nearly 10% of deaths.

What is new:

• In this study using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, global incident cases, deaths, and age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) of congenital birth defects decreased, whereas age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) remained stable from 1990 to 2019.

• From 1990 to 2019, the most pronounced increase in ASIR occurred in Oceania, and the ASMR increased by an average of 0.17% per year in Southern Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the GBD repository (https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/).

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the works by the Global Burden of Disease study 2019 collaborators.

Funding

This study was supported by the grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 71934002, 72122001) and National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant numbers 2021ZD0114101, 2021ZD0114104, 2021ZD0114105). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the paper. No payment was received by any of the co-authors for the preparation of this article. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China

    Liangyu Kang, Guiying Cao, Wenzhan Jing, Jue Liu & Min Liu

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  1. Liangyu Kang
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  2. Guiying Cao
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  3. Wenzhan Jing
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  4. Jue Liu
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Contributions

L. K. did literature research, collected data, performed the data analysis, and drafted the initial manuscript. G. C., W. J., and L. J. provided critical feedback on the methods and results, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. M. L. conceptualized and designed the study, coordinated and supervised data collection, and critically reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content. Prof. Min Liu had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

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Correspondence to Min Liu.

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Communicated by Daniele De Luca.

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Kang, L., Cao, G., Jing, W. et al. Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality of congenital birth defects from 1990 to 2019. Eur J Pediatr 182, 1781–1792 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-023-04865-w

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