Congenital Anomalies and Risk Factors

The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence, describe the types and risk factors of congenital anomalies among newborns admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Study design: This is a prospective case control study was carried out in the neonatal intensive care unit. It is a tertiary care center. The center provides multi-specialist care and serves as a major referral center for hospitals within and outside the city. The study was done during the period of 6 months from December 2017 to May 2018. Patients: All the babies admitted to the hospital with congenital anomalies during this period were included. All stillbirths were excluded from this study. The sample was 346 newborns, 173 cases and 173 control. For each case, a detailed perinatal and maternal and family history were obtained by interviewing questionnaire. Diagnosis of congenital anomalies was based on clinical evaluation of newborn babies by the neonatologist and other appropriate investigations such as radiography, ultrasonography, echocardiography and chromosomal analysis etc... Classification of anomalies is done by systems according to WHO international classification of diseases (ICD10) \[10\]. Data was entered into excel data sheet and appropriate statistical analysis was performed. The prevalence was calculated by dividing the number of CA during the 6 months (173) by the total number of admission during this period (753). Statistical analysis: Data were analyzed using (SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0, NY). Descriptive analysis of the whole sample; where data were expressed as mean values and standard deviations for quantitative variables, and numbers and frequencies for qualitative variables. Bivariate analysis was performed to assess associations between various independent variables and the dependent variable (presence of congenital anomalies), chi-square was used to compare the difference in distribution of frequencies among different groups and if number inside the cell was small we used Fisher's Exact Test. Independent sample T-test was used to compare the difference in means among different groups. A significant p value was considered when it less than or equal 0.05.