Perinatal deaths attributable to congenital heart defects in Hunan Province, China, 2016–2020

Objective: To explore the association between demographic characteristics and perinatal deaths attributable to congenital heart defects (CHDs). Methods: Data were obtained from the Birth Defects Surveillance System of Hunan Province, China, 2016–2020. The surveillance population included fetuses and infants from 28 weeks of gestation to 7 days after birth whose mothers delivered in the surveillance hospitals. Surveillance data included demographic characteristics such as sex, residence, maternal age, and other key information, and were used to calculate the prevalence of CHDs and perinatal mortality rates (PMR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Multivariable logistic regression analysis (method: Forward, Wald, α = 0.05) and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were used to identify factors associated with perinatal deaths attributable to CHDs. Results: This study included 847755 fetuses, and 4161 CHDs were identified, with a prevalence of 0.49% (95%CI: 0.48–0.51). A total of 976 perinatal deaths attributable to CHDs were identified, including 16 (1.64%) early neonatal deaths and 960 (98.36%) stillbirths, with a PMR of 23.46% (95%CI: 21.98–24.93). In stepwise logistic regression analysis, perinatal deaths attributable to CHDs were more common in rural areas than urban areas (OR = 2.21, 95%CI: 1.76–2.78), more common in maternal age = 5 (OR = 2.02, 95%CI: 1.28–3.18) previous pregnancies than the first pregnancy, and more common in CHDs diagnosed in > = 37 gestional weeks (OR = 77.37, 95%CI: 41.37–144.67) or 33–36 gestional weeks (OR = 305.63, 95%CI: 172.61–541.15) or