Prevalence of cleft lip and palate among four provinces in the West and North-West of Iran

Background: one of the most common anomalies in newborn infants is cleft lip and/or cleft palate (cl/p). in spite of several studies about the prevalence of this,no investigation evaluated this prevalence in the west and north-west of iran. with due attention to different ethnic groups in this area,the aim of this study is to investigate whether the distribution of cl/p live births varies regionally in this area of iran. materials and methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted using hospital registry records to identify all children born with cl/p. the hospitals with a maternity unit were selected in the capital cities of four provinces in the west and north-west of iran,east azarbaijan,kurdestan,gilan,and markazi. the population under study included all infants born alive from 2008 to 2012. results: during the study period,107,317 live births were registered in the hospitals with a maternity unit of four cities,and 52 infants (0.485/1000 live births) were born with cl/p. the prevalence in rasht,arak,sanandaj,and tabriz cities was 0.557,0.352,0.503,and 0.559/1000 live births,respectively (p < 0.05),and in cleft types (p < 0.05). of the 52 infants who were born with cl/p,24 (46.15%) were girls and 28 (53.85%) were boys (p > 0.05),whereas the prevalence of cl/p based on sex was statistically different among the four provinces (p < 0.05). conclusion: this study shows regional variations in the birth prevalence of clefts and various cleft types. the different effects of gender on the birth prevalence of cl/p from city-to-city may be explained environmentally and/or by genetic factors affecting the development of oral clefts. © 2015 journal of research in medical sciences.