title: The impact of prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy on the relative incidence of malformations at birth among Jews and Muslim Arabs in Israel.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ultrasound examination of the fetus enables diagnosis of many major malformations during pregnancy, providing the possibility to consider termination of the pregnancy. As a result, in many cases the incidence of malformations at birth does not represent their true incidence.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the impact of prenatal diagnosis and pregnancy termination on the relative incidence of malformations at birth among Jews and Muslim Arabs in Israel.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on selected major malformations in 2000-2003 were collected from the two large central databases of the Ministry of Health and the Central Bureau of Statistics which contain information regarding births, stillbirths and terminations of pregnancies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For many malformations the total incidence was much higher than the incidence at birth. For almost all of the malformations studied, the total incidence was higher in Muslims than in Jews and the differences were further accentuated among the liveborn because of the differences in the rate of pregnancy terminations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In order to detect possible influences of environmental or genetic factors on major malformations in Israel, it is critical to look at data including pregnancy terminations, stillbirths and live births.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel. joelz@cc.huji.ac.il
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zlotogora
authors.forename: Ziona
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Haklai
authors.forename: Naama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rotem
authors.forename: Moriah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Georgi
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rubin
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced; D018912:Arabs; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007514:Islam; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D050497:Stillbirth / Q000208:ethnology