An Descriptive Epidemiological Study on Congenital Clubfoot in China during 2001 to 2010

Objective To understand the trend of prevalence of congenital clubfoot and its epidemiological characterisitics in China during 2001 to 2010. Methods The data of the perinatal children with congenital clubfoot from 2001 to 2010 in the birth defects monitoring program were collected and analyzed, and the perinatal children were defined from the pregnancy of 28 weeks to postnatal 7 days, including live births, fetal deaths and stillbirths. SPSS16.0 software was used to analyze the data. Results A total of 4 233 cases were identified with congenital clubfoot among 8 273 382 births, with a prevalence of 5.12/10⁴. There was no increasing trend or decreasing trend on the prevalence of congenital clubfoot to be found in China during 2001 to 2010 (χ²=2.43,P>0.05). The prevalence of congenital clubfoot in urban and rural areas was 4.90 and 5.43 per 10 000 births respectively. The prevalence of congenital clubfoot in male and female babies was 5.31 and 4.73 per 10 000 births respectively. The prevalence of congenital clubfoot in west, middle and east region was 7.00, 4.52 and 4.27 per 10 000 births respectively. The prevalence of congenital clubfoot in south and north region was 5.82 and 4.34 per 10 000 births respectively. The difference between them is statistically significant (P<0.05). The distribution of affected area between male and female was not significantly different (χ²=1.74,P>0.05). Conclusion There was no increasing or decreasing trend on the prevalence of congenital clubfoot to be found in China during 2001 to 2010. The prevalence of congenital clubfoot in China was found with regional differences and gender differences. The prevalence of congenital clubfoot in Chinese population is greater than foreign populations.