Abstract
The prognosis of children with congenital heart defects(CHDs) continues to improve with advancing surgical techniques; however, lack of information about modifiable risk factors for malformations in cardiovascular development impeded the prevention of CHDs. We investigated an association between maternal lifestyle factors and the risk of CHDs, because epidemiological studies have reported conflicting results regarding maternal lifestyle factors and the risk of CHDs recently. A review published on 2007 provided a summary of maternal exposures associated with an increased risk of CHDs. As part of noninherited risk factors, we conducted a brief overview of studies on the evidence linking common maternal lifestyle factors, specifically smoking, alcohol, illicit drugs, caffeine, body mass index and psychological factors to the development of CHDs in offspring. Women who smoke and have an excessive body mass index(BMI) during pregnancy are suspected to be associated with CHDs in offspring. Our findings could cause public health policy makers to pay more attention to women at risk and could be used in the development of population-based prevention strategies to reduce the incidence and burden of CHDs. However, more prospective studies are needed to investigate the association between maternal lifestyle factors and CHDs.
Highlights
Congenital heart defects (CHD) are the most common human birth defects and the leading cause of perinatal mortality, with an incidence of approximately 4 to 50 per 1000 live birth or even higher [1,2]
CHDs can occur in the setting of multiple birth defects as part of a syndrome, most are found as isolated defects with no syndromic association
Less information has been reported on noninherited factors that may have an adverse effect on the cardiovascular development, which has made it difficult to create population-based strategies to reduce the burden of illness from CHDs and for couples to choose lifestyles to reduce the risk of delivering a child with CHDs
Summary
Congenital heart defects (CHD) are the most common human birth defects and the leading cause of perinatal mortality, with an incidence of approximately 4 to 50 per 1000 live birth or even higher [1,2]. Evidence of maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and CHD Ever since the first description of the fetal alcohol syndrome by Jones and Smith in 1973 [33], many observational studies have been published on the topic of alcohol consumption in pregnant women and the effects on the development of their fetus and child, including cardiac defects. A total of seven studies investigate the association between maternal alcohol consumption during the pregnancy and CHDs. A population-based case–control study of California births indicated that compared with nonconsumers, women who consumed alcohol less than once a week had a 1.3-fold higher risk of having infants with a conotruncal heart defect (95% CI, 1.00- 1.90), and women who consumed alcohol once a week or more had a 1.9-fold increase in risk (95% CI, 1.00- 3.40) [13].
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