Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Mar 30:16:100507.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijcchd.2024.100507. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Time trends and birth rates in women with congenital heart disease; a nationwide cohort study from Norway 1994-2014

Marit Sandberg  1   2 , Tatiana Fomina  3 , Ferenc Macsali  2   4 , Gottfried Greve  1   5 , Mette-Elise Estensen  6 , Nina Øyen  3   7 , Elisabeth Leirgul  5
Affiliations

Time trends and birth rates in women with congenital heart disease; a nationwide cohort study from Norway 1994-2014

Marit Sandberg et al. Int J Cardiol Congenit Heart Dis. .

Abstract

Background: More women with congenital heart disease (CHD) reach reproductive age, but little is known of their success in having children. We investigated time trends of CHD in women of reproductive age and maternal CHD in childbirth and compared birth rates in women with CHD to birth rates in women without heart disease.

Methods and results: In a national cohort, we combined information from five registries in Norway 1994-2014. Among 1,644,650 women aged 15-45 years, 5672 had CHD. Among 1,183,851 childbirths, 3504 were registered with maternal CHD. The prevalences of mild and moderate/severe CHD in women increased by an average of 3-4% per year 1994-2014, as did the prevalences of mild and moderate/severe maternal CHD in childbirth. Compared to women without heart disease, the likelihood of having children was similar for women with mild CHD (rate ratio 1.03, 95% confidence interval 0.97-1.09) but lower for women with moderate/severe CHD (rate ratio 0.75, 95% confidence interval 0.68-0.84). The mean number of childbirths was similar in women with mild CHD and women without heart disease (1.81 vs 1.80, p = 0.722) but lower in women with moderate/severe CHD (1.42, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: In a national cohort over two decades of women of reproductive age, the prevalence of maternal CHD in childbirth reflected the increasing prevalence of CHD in the population. Birth rates were similar for women with mild CHD and women without heart disease, whereas women with moderate/severe CHD were less likely to have children and had a lower mean number of childbirths.

Keywords: Birth rate; Congenital heart disease; Epidemiology; Fertility; Prevalence; Reproductive health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Prevalence of mild CHD (upper line) and prevalence of moderate/severe CHD (lower line) per 10,000 women of reproductive age (15–45 years) (left y-axis), and prevalence of mild maternal CHD (upper dashed line) and prevalence of moderate/severe CHD (lower dashed line) per 10,000 childbirths (right y-axis), in Norway, 1994–2014. Abbreviations: CHD, congenital heart disease.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Rate ratio of having children in women of reproductive age (15–45 years) with phenotypes of congenital heart disease compared to women without heart disease, adjusted for mother's birth year, in Norway 1994–2014. Abbreviations: CHD, congenital heart disease; aRR, adjusted rate ratio; CI, confidence interval. †Complex CHD consists of double outlet right ventricle, double outlet left ventricle, double inlet chamber, hypoplastic right heart syndrome, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, Fontan circulation, and mechanical valve replacements.
figs1
figs1
Supplementary figure 2. The prevalence of CHD per 10,000 women among 1,644,650 women of reproductive age (15-45 years), and the prevalence of maternal CHD per 10,000 childbirths among 1,183,851 childbirths in Norway 1994- 2014. Abbreviations: CHD, congenital heart disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. van der Linde D., Konings E.E., Slager M.A., Witsenburg M., Helbing W.A., Takkenberg J.J., Roos-Hesselink J.W. Birth prevalence of congenital heart disease worldwide: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011;58(21):2241–2247. - PubMed
    1. Liu Y., Chen S., Zuhlke L., Black G.C., Choy M.K., Li N., Keavney B.D. Global birth prevalence of congenital heart defects 1970-2017: updated systematic review and meta-analysis of 260 studies. Int J Epidemiol. 2019;48(2):455–463. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wren C., Richmond S., Donaldson L. Temporal variability in birth prevalence of cardiovascular malformations. Heart. 2000;83(4):414–419. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Khairy P., Ionescu-Ittu R., Mackie A.S., Abrahamowicz M., Pilote L., Marelli A.J. Changing mortality in congenital heart disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2010;56(14):1149–1157. - PubMed
    1. Moons P., Luyckx K., Thomet C., Budts W., Enomoto J., Sluman M.A., et al. Physical functioning, mental health, and quality of life in different congenital heart defects: comparative analysis in 3538 patients from 15 countries. Can J Cardiol. 2021;37(2):215–223. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources