Premium
The prevalence of birth defects among non‐Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives in Texas, 1999–2015
Author(s) -
Le Mimi T.,
Shumate Charlie J.,
Hoyt Adrienne T.,
Wilkinson Anna V.,
Canfield Mark A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
birth defects research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.845
H-Index - 17
ISSN - 2472-1727
DOI - 10.1002/bdr2.1543
Subject(s) - pacific islanders , demography , confidence interval , ethnic group , poisson regression , medicine , population , epidemiology , gerontology , sociology , anthropology
Background There is considerable variability in the prevalence of birth defects among racial/ethnic groups. This study estimated birth defect prevalence among the less studied non‐Hispanic (NH) Asian/Pacific Islander (PI) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations in Texas relative to NH Whites. Methods Data were obtained from the Texas Birth Defect Registry from 1999 to 2015 for deliveries to Texas‐resident women who were NH White, NH Asian/PI, or AI/AN. This covers a live birth population of 2.6 million. Prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated for NH Asian/PIs and AI/ANs (relative to NH Whites) for 44 birth defects using Poisson regression adjusting for maternal age. Results After adjustment there were 33 statistically significant prevalence ratios (aPRs). Among NH Asian/PIs, 23 defects had a lower aPR (0.38–0.86) and three defects had a higher aPR (1.19–2.50). AI/ANs had one defect with a significantly lower aPR (0.64) and six with a higher aPR (1.36–4.63). Conclusions Non‐Hispanic Asian/PIs generally have a lower prevalence ratio for many birth defects while AI/ANs have a higher prevalence ratio compared to NH Whites. These findings update the limited literature on this topic and warrant additional research to identify the true associations across a range of birth defects among these understudied racial/ethnic groups.