[The monitoring of cleft lip with or without cleft palate in China: 1996 - 2000]

Abstract

Objective: To describe the epidemiological features of cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL +/- P) in Chinese perinatals.

Methods: From 1996 through 2000, hospital-based cluster sampling method was adopted for collecting data. During that period all live or still births with 28 weeks of gestation or more delivered in monitoring hospitals were assessed within 7 days after birth.

Results: The birth prevalence rates of cleft lip (CL) and of cleft lip with cleft palate (CLP) were 5.03/10,000, 8.97/10,000 respectively, then the rate of CL +/- P was 14.0/10,000. The prevalence rates in urban and rural area, in male and female births were 13.28/10,000 and 15.57/10,000, 16.06/10,000 and 11.40/10,000 respectively. Significant difference was found among maternal-age-specific prevalence rates, and the highest one was observed in >or= 35 maternal age group. 87.25% of CL +/- P was isolated forms. No secular trend was found during that period. The perinatal fatality rate of CL +/- P was 19.04%, and the rate in isolated forms was 12.69%, but the rate in syndromic CL +/- P was as high as 62.60%.

Conclusions: No decline trend in prevalence rate of CL +/- P was observed during 1996 approximately 2000. Compared with prevalence rates of CL +/- P in some foreign countries, it was higher in China during same period.