• DOI:10.1002/BDRA.20285
• Corpus ID: 36720206

Periconceptional health and lifestyle factors of both parents affect the risk of live-born children with orofacial clefts.

@article{Krapels2006PericonceptionalHA,
  title={Periconceptional health and lifestyle factors of both parents affect the risk of live-born children with orofacial clefts.},
  author={Ingrid P.C. Krapels and Gerhard A. Zielhuis and Fokaline Vroom and Lolkje de Jong-van den Berg and Anne Marie Kuijpers-Jagtman and Aebele B. Mink van der Molen and R{\'e}gine P. M. Steegers-Theunissen},
  journal={Birth defects research. Part A, Clinical and molecular teratology},
  year={2006},
  volume={76 8},
  pages={
          613-20
        }
}

• I. Krapels, G. Zielhuis, +4 authors R. Steegers-Theunissen
• Published 1 August 2006
• Medicine
• Birth defects research. Part A, Clinical and molecular teratology

BACKGROUND
Nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) or cleft palate only (CPO) are orofacial clefts and have a multifactorial etiology. The identification of amendable parental risk factors may contribute to a reduced occurrence of these malformations in the future.

METHODS
Standardized demographic and periconceptional exposure data from 284 parents of a child with CL/P, 66 parents of a child with a CPO and 222 parents of a child without congenital malformations were collected at approximately 24 months after the periconceptional period of the index child. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to estimate relative risks by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).

RESULTS
Univariate results suggest that low parental education, periconceptional maternal medication use and illnesses, paternal smoking, and first-trimester maternal common cold increased CL/P risk. Pregnancy planning and periconceptional folic acid supplementation, however, reduced CL/P risk by approximately 50% (OR, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.8) and 40% (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.9), respectively. Mostly comparable results were obtained for CPO. Being a boy (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.4-3.0), folic acid supplementation (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.9), and low paternal education (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.0-2.3) mainly determined CL/P in the multivariate analyses, compared to low paternal (OR, 4.5; 95% CI, 2.1-9.4) and maternal medication use (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.0-4.0) for CPO.

CONCLUSIONS
Preconceptional counseling for orofacial cleft risk assessment should pay attention to maternal medication use, periconceptional folic acid supplementation, and exposures of the father. These determinants can be amended, thereby modifying orofacial cleft risk.