IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i23p12530-d689994.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Comparative Prevalence of Birth Defects between Newborns of Immigrant and Native-Born Mothers in Taiwan: Ten Years of Population-Based Data

Author

Listed:
  • Yu-Jung Lin

    (Department of Public Health, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan)

  • Jeng-Yuan Chiou

    (School of Health Policy and Management, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan)

  • Jing-Yang Huang

    (Clinical Research Center, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40201, Taiwan)

  • Pen-Hua Su

    (Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
    Department of Pediatrics, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40201, Taiwan)

  • Jia-Yuh Chen

    (Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
    Division of Neonatology, Changhua Christian Children’s Hospital, Changhua 50050, Taiwan)

  • Hao-Jan Yang

    (Department of Public Health, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
    Department of Family and Community Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40201, Taiwan)

Abstract

In recent years, newborns born to immigrant mothers have accounted for about 10% of the total births in Taiwan. However, little is known about whether there are differences between newborns of immigrant and native-born mothers regarding the prevalence and the possible causes of birth defects. By combining four nationwide databases and assessing all newborns between 2005 and 2014 in Taiwan as research subjects, this study determined the prevalence of birth defects stratified into nine categories (neuronal, facial, cleft, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, urogenital, musculoskeletal and chromosomal abnormalities) in the newborns of immigrant mothers and native-born mothers. We found that the prevalence of any birth defects in newborns of immigrant mothers (ranging from 0.98 to 1.24%) was lower than that of native-born mothers (2.86%). Skeletomuscular system defects are the most common among newborns of women from the main immigrant countries (0.24–0.42%), while circulatory system defects were the most common among newborns of Taiwanese women (0.92%). The risks of all defects remained lower for newborns of immigrant mothers (AORs ranged from 0.37 to 0.47) after controlling for possible confounding variables. The higher rates of birth defects among newborns of native-born mothers may be attributed to an older maternal age at childbirth and a higher prevalence of diabetes than that of immigrant mothers. The findings from this study imply that the prevalence of birth defects between newborns of immigrant and native-born mothers is not similar, as evidenced by a decade of population-based data.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu-Jung Lin & Jeng-Yuan Chiou & Jing-Yang Huang & Pen-Hua Su & Jia-Yuh Chen & Hao-Jan Yang, 2021. "A Comparative Prevalence of Birth Defects between Newborns of Immigrant and Native-Born Mothers in Taiwan: Ten Years of Population-Based Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-12, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:23:p:12530-:d:689994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12530/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12530/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kyunghwa Kwak, 2018. "Age and Gender Variations in Healthy Immigrant Effect: a Population Study of Immigrant Well-Being in Canada," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 413-437, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mabel Ho & Eleanor Pullenayegum & David Burnes & Esme Fuller-Thomson, 2022. "Successful Aging among Immigrant and Canadian-Born Older Adults: Findings from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Chang Su & Lixia Yang & Linying Dong & Weiguo Zhang, 2022. "The Psychological Well-Being of Older Chinese Immigrants in Canada amidst COVID-19: The Role of Loneliness, Social Support, and Acculturation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:23:p:12530-:d:689994. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.