Parental risk factors associated with congenital heart disease in a Thai population: multivariable analysis

BACKGROUND: Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common types of birth defects and contribute to a large proportion of infant morbidities and mortalities worldwide. These defects may require multiple surgical interventions impacting the infant's quality of life. OBJECTIVES: To identify risk factors associated with CHD in a population of Thai children. METHODS: We conducted a case–control study of patients attending the Pediatric Clinic, Naresuan University Hospital, Thailand. We included data from pediatric patients diagnosed with CHDs as cases, and patients without cardiovascular abnormalities as controls. Risk data were collected from July 2019 to April 2020 using face-to-face interviews. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze parental factors associated with CHDs. RESULTS: We included 249 cases classified into 2 groups according to severity and 304 patients as controls. For those less-severely affected (155 patients, 62.2%), ventricular septal defect (27.7%) was the most prevalent, whereas for those with severe CHDs, tetralogy of Fallot was the most prevalent (14.0%). There was no difference in sex distribution or maternal obstetric history between the groups. In multivariable analysis, a family history of CHDs (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 4.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.61–13.57, P = 0.005) and maternal exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke (AOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.03–2.42, P = 0.002) were identified as significant risk factors for CHDs. CONCLUSION: A family history of CHDs and maternal exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke are associated with having offspring with CHDs in the population studied. These findings help us to encourage affected parents to obtain a fetal echocardiogram.