Maternal risk factors associated with neural tube defects in Tigray regional state of Ethiopia

Unlike developing countries, including Ethiopia the identification of the risk factors in decreasing the burden of neural tube defects (NTDs) is well established in the developed world. Hence, we sought to determine the factors associated with NTDs in Tigray - Ethiopia.

We undergo a case-control analysis where all NTDs cases were compared to a group of controls derived randomly from the same hospitals where cases were recruited from. The NTDs survey tool which contains a standard questionnaire was prepared. Parental socio-demographic and clinical information such, maternal age, obstetric history, illnesses, drug intake, radiation, occupation, education, history of congenital anomalies, residence, exposure to pollutants such as smoking, chemicals, paternal history, and folic acid utilization was collected and analyzed using SPSS version 20.

This study has shown the maternal age, and residency, birth order 3 and 4, unplanned pregnancy, history of breastfeeding above 2 years, history of stillbirths, history of male gender predominance were found to have a strong association with an occurrence of NTDs (p = 0.0001). Though the binary logistic regression analysis showed no significant association in some of the risk factors such as maternal health and drug history, the frequency analysis showed they may have an impact on the incidence of NTDs.

This study has shown the majority of the maternal risk factors and other lifestyle patterns had a significant impact on the occurrence of NTDs. Therefore, efficient monitoring of NTDs in Ethiopia is vital, so our study could be groundwork information in Ethiopia for future programs.