Abstract
Introduction Mortality due to noncommunicable diseases has increased in the world today with the advent of demographic shifts, growing age, and lifestyle patterns in the world, which have been affected by economic and social crises. Congenital heart defects are one of the forms of diseases that have raised infant mortality worldwide. The objective of present study was to identify nonmedical determinants related to this abnormality from the mother's perspectives. Methods This research was a qualitative study and the data collection method was a semistructured interview with mothers who had children with congenital heart diseases referring to the Shahid Rajaei Heart Hospital in Tehran, Iran. A thematic analysis approach was employed to analyze transcribed documents assisted by MAXQDA Plus version 12. Results Four general themes and ten subthemes including social contexts (social harms, social interactions, and social necessities), psychological contexts (mood disorders and mental well-being), cultural contexts (unhealthy lifestyle, family culture, and poor parental health behaviors), and environmental contexts (living area and polluted air) were extracted from interviews with mothers of children with congenital heart diseases. Conclusions Results suggest that factors such as childhood poverty, lack of parental awareness of congenital diseases, lack of proper nutrition and health facilities, education, and lack of medical supervision during pregnancy were most related with the birth of children with congenital heart disease from mothers' prospective. In this regard, targeted and intersectorial collaborations are proposed to address nonmedical determinants related to the incidence of congenital heart diseases.
Highlights
Mortality due to noncommunicable diseases has increased in the world today with the advent of demographic shifts, growing age, and lifestyle patterns in the world, which have been affected by economic and social crises
Four main themes and 10 subthemes were extracted from interviews regarding nonmedical determinants of Congenital heart diseases (CHD) in children from the mothers’ perspective. e themes were social contexts, psychological contexts, cultural contexts, and environmental contexts
The study showed that social, psychological, and cultural determinants such as childhood poverty, inadequate education, lack of proper nutrition, poor lifestyle patterns, parents’ ignorance of consanguineous marriages, and congenital disorders, as well as environmental factors such as heat and the presence of dust and air pollution, can be considered as contexts that contribute to the occurrence, spread, and complications of CHD
Summary
Mortality due to noncommunicable diseases has increased in the world today with the advent of demographic shifts, growing age, and lifestyle patterns in the world, which have been affected by economic and social crises. Results suggest that factors such as childhood poverty, lack of parental awareness of congenital diseases, lack of proper nutrition and health facilities, education, and lack of medical supervision during pregnancy were most related with the birth of children with congenital heart disease from mothers’ prospective. In this regard, targeted and intersectorial collaborations are proposed to address nonmedical determinants related to the incidence of congenital heart diseases. Studies conducted in Iran have estimated the prevalence of congenital heart abnormalities in the range of 9.7 to 17.5 per 1000 live births [13, 14]
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