TUESDAY, Dec. 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Indicators of lower socioeconomic status are associated with an increased incidence of orofacial clefts, according to a study published in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Giap H. Vu, M.D., from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues examined the association between socioeconomic status and cleft lip with or without cleft palate and cleft palate alone using 2016 and 2017 U.S. natality data.
Data were included for 6,251,308 live births, of which 0.05 percent of infants had cleft lip with or without cleft palate and 0.02 percent had cleft palate only. The researchers found that maternal education of a bachelor’s degree or higher protected against cleft lip with or without cleft palate (adjusted odds ratios, 0.73), while delayed prenatal care was associated with an increased risk (adjusted odds ratios, 1.14 to 1.23). There was an association observed for receiving assistance under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children with cleft palate only (adjusted odds ratio, 1.25). There were also significant associations seen for male sex, first-trimester tobacco smoking, and maternal gestational diabetes with cleft lip with or without cleft palate (adjusted odds ratios, 1.60, 1.01, and 1.19, respectively). Significant associations for cleft palate only were seen for female sex, prepregnancy tobacco smoking, and maternal infections during pregnancy (adjusted odds ratios, 0.74, 1.02, and 1.60, respectively).
“Different indicators of lower socioeconomic status (level of maternal education, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children status) were associated with different cleft phenotypes,” the authors write.
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