Maternal socioeconomic and lifestyle factors during pregnancy and the risk of congenital heart defects.
The objective of study was to estimate the importance of maternal socioeconomic and lifestyle factors during pregnancy in the risk of congenital heart defects in Kaunas infant population in 1999-2005.


METHODS
An epidemiological case-control study was conducted. The study comprised 187 newborns with congenital heart defects (cases) and 643 randomly selected newborns without any defects (controls), born in Kaunas city during 1999-2005. Modern epidemiological methods were used for data analysis. A multivariate logistic regression was used to determine adjusted risk factors of congenital heart defects.


RESULTS
The logistic multivariate regression analysis showed that low and moderate maternal education significantly increased the risk of congenital heart defects (primary or basic [OR=3.43; 95% CI, 1.54-7.64] and secondary [OR=1.56; 95% CI, 1.00-2.45] vs advanced vocational or higher education). The housewives and workers had a higher risk of delivering a newborn with congenital heart defects than the office workers (OR=2.34; 95% CI, 1.34-4.10 and OR=1.28; 95% CI, 0.79-2.07, respectively). Maternal smoking during pregnancy tended to increase the risk of congenital heart defects by 48% (OR=1.48; 95% CI, 0.82-2.67).


CONCLUSIONS
According to our study results, unfavorable maternal socioeconomic factors and smoking during pregnancy increased the risk of congenital heart defects.
Kuciene
Renata
R
Institute of Cardiology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Kaunas, Lithuania. renatakuciene@yahoo.com
Dulskiene
Virginija
V
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D019992:Databases as Topic; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008097:Lithuania / Q000453:epidemiology; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors