Geographic and urban–rural disparities in the total prevalence of neural tube defects and their subtypes during 2006–2008 in China: a study using the hospital-based birth defects surveillance system

BMC Public Health

Juan Liang⁴  Mingrong Li⁴  He Wang¹  Qi Li⁵  Guangxuan Zhou⁵  Li Dai⁵  Dezhi Mu³  Yanping Wang⁴  Jun Zhu⁵  Xiaohong Li² 

[1] Prenatal Diagnosis Department, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, No 17, section 3, Ren Min Nan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan, China;West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, No 17, section 3, Ren Min Nan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan, China;Key Laboratory of Obstetric & Gynecologic and Pediatric Diseases and Birth Defects of Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, No 17, section 3, Ren Min Nan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan, China;National Office for Maternal and Child Health Surveillance, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, No 17, section 3, Ren Min Nan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan, China;National Center for Birth Defects Monitoring, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, No 17, section 3, Ren Min Nan Lu, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

关键词: Urban–rural disparity;    Geographic disparity;    Prevalence ratio;    Neural tube defects;   

Others  :  1162518
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-13-161

 received in 2011-11-25, accepted in 2013-01-28,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Previous reports on the prevalence of neural tube defects (NTDs) in China did not include cases of NTDs that were less than 28 weeks of gestational age (GA) and hence did not accurately reflect the total prevalence of NTDs or the geographic and urban–rural disparities in their prevalence. This article includes cases of NTDs that were less than 28 weeks of GA.

Methods

Data used in this study were collected from 2006 to 2008 using a nationwide hospital-based registry, the Chinese Birth Defects Monitoring Network. The total prevalence ratio (PR) of NTDs and their subtypes, the ratios of PR (PRR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to analyse geographic disparities at both the regional (north, south) and provincial levels and to analyse disparities between rural and urban areas.

Results

Overall, the total PR of NTDs was 14.0 per 10,000 births. The PRR of NTDs of rural women between the north and south region was 2.26 (95% CI: 2.04-2.52), which was much higher than that of urban women (PRR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.41-1.72). The three subtypes of NTDs had different geographic distribution at the level of province. The urban–rural PRR of NTDs was 2.14 (95% CI: 1.94-2.34) in the north but only 1.47 (95% CI: 1.31-1.66) in the south.

Conclusions

There is a high total prevalence of NTDs, which remains one of the major public health concerns in China. Eliminating the geographic and urban–rural disparities in the disease burden is a priority for future intervention.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Li et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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