Comparison of Environmental and Parental Risk factors on Children with Congenital Heart Defects.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46568/bios.v6i1-2.233Keywords:
congenital heart diseases, Periconceptual, Heart failureAbstract
Heart defects are structural birth defects, which is the number one cause of infants morbidity and mortality in the world. The rationale of the study was to compare the demographic characteristics that were in distribution between those parental health conditions and environmental exposures of children with CHDs and controls that matched their age. A cross-sectional study has recruited 100 children aged ≤12 months in which 50 had congenital heart defects (CHDs) and another 50 children were controls. Parental age, maternal comorbidities (diabetes mellitus and hypertension), and environmental exposures (air pollution, chemical exposure, contaminated drinking water and smoking) were determined. Relative analysis was aimed at determining possible correlations between these factors and the occurrence of CHD. Results showed that children with CHDs were more accompanied by the environmental exposures which included air pollution (22% vs. 18%), chemical exposure (24% vs. 20%), and drinking water contamination (27% vs. 20%). There was higher rate of smoking in the control group (42% vs. 27%). There was a relative similarity in the distributions of maternal comorbidities and parental age. It was concluded that the incidence of CHDs in this cohort may be more influenced by environmental factors than by maternal health conditions or parental age. These findings demonstrate the complex etiology of congenital cardiac defects and emphasize the significance of public health initiatives and environmental health interventions to lower avoidable exposures during crucial stages of cardiac development. To further clarify these associations, larger studies with thorough exposure assessment are necessary.
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