Abstract:
Background; Congenital anomalies are also known as congenital malformations, birth defects or congenital disorders. Congenital anomalies are one of the increasing causes of child mortality and morbidity. Worldwide, the incidence of congenital anomalies varies between geographical regions but it is estimated that 3-7% of children are born with birth defects.
Objectives; to assess the magnitude of congenital anomalies and associated factors among neonates delivered at St Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2023/4.
Methods; an institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among neonates delivered at St Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A total of 422 sample size was included for this study. This data was collected from birth registration books through data abstraction from December, 2023 to February, 2024. Data was collected using electronic data collection, Kobo toolbox and collected data was exported to Statistical Package for Social Science version 25 for analysis. Binary logistic regressions were calculated using the odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval. Variables with a p-value < 0.25 in the bi-variate analysis were taken into multivariate analysis. Finally, variables with a p-value < 0.05 were declared as statistical significant.
Results; the finding of this study showed, that the overall magnitude of congenital anomalies was 3.8%wich was 38/1000 cases. Among these, Central nervous system defects accounted for
3.1 % of the total births, with anencephaly being the most predominant 1.2%, whereas, variables associated with congenital anomalies were; Presence of chronic illness (p=0.001, AOR=7.45, 95% CI (2.3, 24.2), Non folic acid use (p=0.02, AOR=15.68, 95% CI (2.72, 3.
75) and History of drug allergy (p=0.001, AOR=0.014, 95% CI (0.002, 0.105)
Conclusion and Recommendations; the overall magnitude of congenital anomalies was 3.8%, this study found significant associations between congenital anomalies and factors such as presence of chronic illnesses, previous use of folic acid and a history of drug allergies and this finding underscores the necessity for well-planned and targeted surveillance of cases in healthcare settings to enhance data documentation, implementation, and prevention of risk factors associated with congenital anomalies
