Holoprosencephaly in Texas, 1999 - 2009: A prevalence study

Abigail Cartus, The University of Texas School of Public Health

Abstract

This study describes the birth prevalence of the birth defect holoprosencephaly among infants born in Texas between 1999 and 2009. Factors associated with the birth prevalence of holoprosencephaly were also examined using multiple Poisson regression analyses. This was done for all available cases of holoprosencephaly and additionally for each of the three clinical types of holoprosencephaly, which correspond roughly to degree of severity. This birth prevalence study used a large number of cases (n = 659) compared to other work on this topic; only one study in the published epidemiological literature on holoprosencephaly used more cases than this investigation. The results of this study were largely consistent with the existing literature. This analysis revealed maternal diabetes as the factor showing a statistically significant association of the greatest magnitude with birth prevalence of holoprosencephaly; infant sex, maternal race/ethnicity, and maternal education level were also associated with birth prevalence of holoprosencephaly. These factors were consistently associated with holoprosencephaly across clinical type, and point to the importance of more research to characterize the effect of maternal race/ethnicity on the prevalence of holoprosencephaly and to investigate the teratogenic mechanism of maternal diabetes in the case of this defect.

Subject Area

Epidemiology

Recommended Citation

Cartus, Abigail, "Holoprosencephaly in Texas, 1999 - 2009: A prevalence study" (2016). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI10182175.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI10182175

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