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Objective: The aim of this study was to compare reproduction patterns among Danish women born with isolated oral clefts versus the Danish background population., Design and Setting: A nationwide population-based historic cohort study based on three registers: The Danish Facial Cleft Register, The Danish Civil Registration System, and the Fertility of Women and Couples Dataset., Participants: Through linkages of the registers, the number of children and the exact age at childbirth of all Danish women born with an oral cleft from 1950 through 1988 (N = 1931) were obtained. These data were compared with similar data for the entire Danish female background population (N = 1,184,390)., Results and Conclusions: This study suggests that childlessness is higher among women born with an oral cleft (55%) than among women in the Danish background population (44%). Excluding women without children, women born with oral cleft had an average of 1.98 children per woman. This did not differ significantly from the background population (2.02 children/woman). Furthermore, the present study found that Danish women born with oral clefts on average were older (27.3 years of age) than the background population (24.7 years of age) when they had their first child (difference = 2.6 years, confidence interval = 2.41 to 2.80)., Conclusion: Danish women born with an oral cleft more often are childless or have their first child later, but if they have children, they tend to have as many children as other Danish women. Social, psychological, and biological reasons might be responsible for the reduced fertility.

Background: Some malformations are clearly associated with older maternal age, but the effect of older age of the father is less certain. The aim of this study is to determine the degree to which maternal age and paternal age independently influence the risk of having a child with oral clefts., Methods: Among the 1,489,014 live births in Denmark during 1973-1996, there were 1920 children with nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate and 956 children with nonsyndromic cleft palate. We used logistic regression to assess the impact of parental age on the occurrence of cleft lip with or without cleft palate and cleft palate. Interaction between mother's and father's age was included in the analysis., Results: Separate analyses of mother's and father's age showed that older age was associated with increased risk of both cleft lip with or without cleft palate and cleft palate only. In a joint analysis, both maternal and paternal ages were associated with the risk of cleft lip with or without cleft palate, but the contribution of each was dependent on the age of the other parent. In the analysis of cleft palate only, the effect of maternal age disappeared, leaving only paternal age as a risk factor., Conclusion: Both high maternal age and high paternal age were associated with cleft lip with or without cleft palate. Higher paternal age but not maternal age increased the risk of cleft palate only.

Objective: The aim of this project was to assess whether any changes in the birth prevalence of cleft lip with/without cleft palate (CL[P]) occurred in Denmark during the period 1988 through 2001. In this period an official recommendation of a supplementation of folic acid to pregnant women was introduced; furthermore, smoking among pregnant women decreased considerably., Design and Settings: There are few places in which ecological studies of oral clefts are possible. Denmark provides a particularly good setting for this kind of study because of a high ascertainment and a centralized registration of subjects with cleft over the last 65 years., Participants: Cleft occurrence in Denmark from 1936 to 1987 has previously been reported. Here we extend the study to include all live-born children with oral clefts born in Denmark in 1988 through 2001. Among a total of 992,727 live births, 1332 children with CL(P) were born during this period., Results and Conclusions: The birth prevalence of CL(P) in Denmark has previously been found to be constant in the period 1962 through 1987, with a frequency of 1.4 to 1.5 per 1000 live births. This study showed a similar occurrence in 1988 through 2001 (birth prevalence = 1.44 per 1000 live births, 95% confidence interval = 1.37 to 1.52). The introduction of folic acid and the decrease in smoking prevalence among pregnant women do not seem to have reduced the birth prevalence. This may be due to noncompliance with the folic acid recommendation and/or only a weak causal association between folic acid and smoking and occurrence of CL(P).

The article discusses a study which compared reproduction patterns among Danish females born with isolated oral clefts (OCs) with the Danish women background population. The study indicates that childlessness level is higher in oral cleft women than those in the background population. It notes that oral cleft women are more often childless or get their first offspring later.

Objective: The aim of this project was to assess whether any changes in the birth prevalence of cleft lip with/without cleft palate (CL[P]) occurred in Denmark during the period 1988 through 2001. In this period an official recommendation of a supplementation of folic acid to pregnant women was introduced; furthermore, smoking among pregnant women decreased considerably. Design and Settings: There are few places in which ecological studies of oral clefts are possible. Denmark provides a particularly good setting for this kind of study because of a high ascertainment and a centralized registration of subjects with cleft over the last 65 years. Participants: Cleft occurrence in Denmark from 1936 to 1987 has previously been reported. Here we extend the study to include all live-born children with oral clefts born in Denmark in 1988 through 2001. Among a total of 992,727 live births, 1332 children with CL(P) were born during this period. Results and Conclusions: The birth prevalence of CL(P) in Denmark has previously been found to be constant in the period 1962 through 1987, with a frequency of 1.4 to 1.5 per 1000 live births. This study showed a similar occurrence in 1988 through 2001 (birth prevalence = 1.44 per 1000 live births, 95% confidence interval = 1.37 to 1.52). The introduction of folic acid and the decrease in smoking prevalence among pregnant women do not seem to have reduced the birth prevalence. This may be due to noncompliance with the folic acid recommendation and/or only a weak causal association between folic acid and smoking and occurrence of CL(P). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]