Follow-up studies of children with birth defects in the Medical Birth Registry of Norway: A review

Abstract

In two studies published from data in the Medical Birth Registry of Norway we described the survival, tendency to reproduce and subsequent recurrence of birth defects in offspring for children with a range of categories of birth defects. The studies were done separately for girls and boys. The current review summarizes data from these reports and makes some comparisons between boys and girls. More boys than girls are born with birth defects. The survival and tendency to reproduce showed great variation from milder to more serious types of defects, and this pattern was relatively consistent for boys and girls. The recurrence of birth defects in the offspring was almost entirely for a similar type of birth defect. For boys with birth defects, however, there was also a tendency to have offspring with other types of birth defects. A total of 0.5% of birth defects in the next generation was attributable to mothers who themselves had birth defects. For fathers with birth defects this number was higher (1.6%) both because more boys were born with birth defects in the previous generation, but also because fathers pass on more birth defects to the next generation