Background Congenital heart disease (CHD) represents some of the more prevalent malformations among live births andremains the leading cause of death from congenital malformations.Conotruncal anomalies comprise a diverse group of CHDinvolving the outflow tracts of the heart and the great vessels.Oral contraceptive exposure before pregnancy may be one of therisk factors for conotruncal CHD.Objective To evaluate the effect of oral contraceptive use beforepregnancy on the risk of conotruncal CHD in children.Methods A case-control study was conducted from July 2010until July 2011 in Haji Adam Malik Hospital, Medan. Subjectswith CHD were divided into two groups: conotruncal CHD asthe case group and non-conotruncal CHD as the control group.Both groups had mothers with and without histories of oralcontraceptive use before pregnancy. Parents were interviewedusing questionnaires. Statistical analyses were performed usingChi-square test, student’s T-test, and Mann Whitney test.Results A total of 80 subjects were eligible, with 40 subjects ineach group. The percentages of subjects whose mothers used oralcontraceptives were 62% of the conotruncal CHD group and60% of the non-conotruncal CHD group (OR 0.82; 95%CI 0.33to 1.98). The mean duration of maternal oral contraceptive usebefore pregnancy was 19.1 months for the case group and 18.8months for the control group (P=0.87).Conclusion In children with CHD, maternal oral contraceptiveuse before pregnancy does not appear to increase the risk ofconotruncal CHD.
Unintended pregnancy-related factors and the occurrence of offspring congenital heart disease: a multi-site case-control study in China
