Congenital anomalies in Australia 2002-2003[1] published in 2008 is part a new revised series on 33 selected congenital anomalies monitored internationally by the International Clearinghouse of Birth Defects Surveillance and Research.
- Hypospadias is the most commonly reported condition at birth, but severity of the condition is not reported to the national data collection.
- Trisomy 21 (Down’s syndrome) is the next most commonly reported condition at birth (11.1 per 10,000 births), but many affected pregnancies are detected early and managed by early termination. An estimated 63.6% of the fetuses diagnosed with trisomy 21 were managed by terminations of pregnancy or were fetal deaths. When terminations of pregnancy were included, the estimated rate for trisomy 21 was 26.3 per 10,000 pregnancies. Trisomy 21 was more common with advancing maternal age.
- Other chromosomal abnormalities such as trisomy 13 and trisomy 18 also had a large proportion of fetal deaths or terminations of pregnancy and were more common in women aged 40 years or older.
- Neural tube defects were diagnosed in about 4.2 per 10,000 births.
- More males than females diagnosed with congenital anomalies for many of the reported conditions (e.g. hydrocephalus, most of the reported congenital heart diseases, oesophageal atresia and polycystic kidneys).
- Anencephaly - younger women had a higher rate compared with older women, most of the women who gave birth to a baby with anencephaly (77.2%) were in the 20–34 years age group.
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