Parental cigarette smoking and the risk of congenital heart septal defects

Renata Kučienė,Virginija Dulskienė

doi:10.3390/medicina46090090

Renata Kučienė, Virginija Dulskienė

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina46090090

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Journal: Medicina	Publication Date: Sep 11, 2010
Citations: 19	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the association between parental cigarette smoking and the risk of congenital heart septal defects in Kaunas infant population in 1995-2005. An epidemiological case-control study was conducted. The study comprised 261 newborns with congenital heart septal defects (cases) and 1122 randomly selected newborns without any defects (controls), born in Kaunas city during 1995-2005. Information on potential risk factors of newborns' health was collected through an interview with parents using standardized questionnaires. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between parental smoking and septal defects while controlling for possible confounders. According to the validated registry, 371 newborns with congenital heart malformations were born in Kaunas city during 1995-2005; 70.3% of cases had ventricular and/or atrial septal defects. After adjustment for possible confounding factors - maternal education, social status, marital status - a statistically significant relationship was observed between parental smoking and congenital heart septal defects. Parental, maternal, and paternal smoking was significantly associated with a 2.27-fold (adjusted OR=2.27; 95% CI, 1.49-3.46), 2.2-fold (adjusted OR=2.20; 95% CI, 1.01-4.79), and 1.45-fold (adjusted OR=1.45; 95% CI, 1.03-2.03) increased risk of defects if compared with nonsmoking parents. According to the results of our study, parental smoking was significantly associated with an increased risk of congenital heart septal defects in infants.

Highlights

Congenital heart defects are among the most common birth defects [1, 2], and they remain a major cause of death in infancy and childhood [3]
After adjustment for possible confounding factors – maternal education, social status, marital status – a statistically significant relationship was observed between parental smoking and congenital heart septal defects
Maternal, and paternal smoking was significantly associated with a 2.27-fold, 2.2-fold, and 1.45-fold increased risk of defects if compared with nonsmoking parents

Summary

Introduction

Congenital heart defects are among the most common birth defects [1, 2], and they remain a major cause of death in infancy and childhood [3]. The prevalence of congenital heart defects is estimated to be 4 to 10 cases per 1000 live births [1, 2, 4, 5], and the most frequent types of these malformations are septal defects [2, 6, 7]. The part of ventricular and atrial septal defects closes spontaneously within the first year of life [8]; other children with congenital defects require surgical intervention [8, 9]. About 85% of these defects are caused by complex interaction between environmental teratogens and genetic factors [1]. It is considered that the effects of harmful environmental factors on female organisms may cause the occurrence of birth defects [10], especially if they are affected during critical period, i.e., from three months before pregnancy through the end of the first trimester [11]

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