[Study on the changes of incidence rates on birth defects through hospital based surveillance program in Guangdong...

To analyze the tendency of hospital based surveillance incidence rates of birth defects in Guangdong province to provide reference evidence for related intervention program.

Data from hospital based birth defects surveillance of Guangdong province during 1997 - 2007 were analyzed retrospectively.

The overall surveillance rates of birth defects in Guangdong province showed an increasing trend form 98.9 per 10 000 birth in 1997 to 244.2 per 10 000 birth in 2007. Among the frequently seen birth defects, the rate of congenital heart diseases increased sharply, but the rates of congenital talipes equinovarus, polydactyly, cleft lip with/without cleft palate showed a slight increasing trend. It seemed that there was a significant difference between different maternal age interval and gender of the infants. Mother's illness, drug use, and exposure to environment harmful factors in early pregnancy stage, high maternal age, negative bearing history were the suspect risk factors for birth defects.

The increasing trend of surveillance rate of birth defects seemed to be comprehensively affected by the factors as: method being adopted, target and extension of birth defects surveillance, technology used for diagnosis, kinds of risk factor, and quality control on surveillance programs.