Reducing Birth Defects in Populations

P.A. Baird

Centre for Health Services and Policy Research from University of British Columbia - Centre for Health Services and Policy Research.

Abstract: Birth defects occur in population in 3-5% of births. All those birth defects due to chromosomal errors, hundreds of those due to single genes and many of those due to unknown or multifactoral cause can be detected prenatally. However, it is not feasible to test all pregnancies for all of these causes, and it cannot be predicted which pregnant women are more likely to be carrying a fetus with a birth defect except in a few instances, namely: -Down syndrome, -neural tube defect, -a previous history in the family of a particular defect and - a history in sub-population of a high birth incidence of a particular gene-caused defect. Carefully developed programs focused on these four situations may bring benefits to a population, because it allows families to avoid the suffering involved in having a severely handicapped child.

Keywords: BIRTH; DEMOGRAPHY; HEALTH (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J10 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:brichs:99:4

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