Epidemiological characteristics of congenital malformations: data from the Moscow Region register

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the epidemiology of congenital malformations in different populations in comparison with the data of the regional register of congenital malformations of the Moscow Region. The article provides a brief description and results of the work of international organizations that collect and analyze data on the prevalence and structure of congenital anomalies — EUROCAT (European network of population-based registries for the epidemiological surveillance of congenital anomalies) and ICBDSR (The International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research). For countries where there are no monitoring systems for congenital malformations recording, the Modell World Database of Congenital Diseases (MGDb) has been developed, which makes it possible to calculate the estimated population prevalence of congenital malformations in these regions. According to international registers, the most common groups of congenital malformations are malformations of the cardiovascular, genitourinary, central nervous systems and malformations of the extremities. To date, the epidemiological picture of the prevalence and structure of congenital malformations around the world looks stable.The article analyzes data from the population-based register of congenital malformations in the Moscow Region from 2011 to 2019, with a coverage of 83% of births in the region. The overall prevalence of congenital malformations was 25.42 per 1000 births. It is determined that the structure of congenital malformations in the Moscow Region is comparable to the data of international studies, but one should pay attention to the lower frequency of most groups of malformations, which is most likely due to insufficient registration of malformations. The Moscow Region register of congenital malformations provides relevant and qualitative data on the frequency and structure of the congenital malformations in the region, which allows, if necessary, to extrapolate obtained prevalence rates to other constituent entities of the Russian Federation as well.