Objective: To describe the prevalence trend and epidemiological characteristics of neural tube defects (NTDs) in perinatal in Zhengzhou city from 1996 to 2005.
Methods: Data collected from hospital were used to depict the epidemiology of NTDs in Zhengzhou. All perinatal fetuses born in hospitals had an access within 7 days after delivery. The prevalence were calculated by perinatal'year, sex, birth area (urban versus rural) and maternal age. All monitored perinatal (162,074) accounted for 32.66% from totals (496,203).
Results: All 238 cases were found NTDs, and the overall prevalence rate was 14.68/10,000. The annual prevalence rate presented a decreasing trend during that period. The rates in rural and urban area, in male and female birth were 29.28/10,000 and 9.63/10,000, 11.42/10,000 and 17.74/10,000 respectively. There were significant differences among maternal-age-specific prevalence rates (chi2 = 22.952, P = 0.000). The rates of <20 years group(53.76/10,000) and >35 years group(21.74/10,000) were higher than others.
Conclusion: The prevalence rates of NTDs in rural area is higher than that in urban, female's is higher than male's in Zhengzhou. The annual prevalence rates of NTDs presents a decreasing trend in the past ten years.