Maternal cigarette smoking and cleft lip and palate: A systematic review and meta-analysis
ABSTRACT Objectives: A systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between active maternal smoking and cleft lip and palate etiology. Data Sources: Medline, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane database from inception to November 2020. Study selection: Observational studies of cigarette smoking habits in pregnant women. Outcomes included cleft lip and/or palate, cleft lip +- palate and cleft palate only. Data analysis: Publication bias analyses were performed and the Newcastle Ottawa scales were used to assess study quality. Fixed or random effect models were used in the meta-analysis, dependent on risk of statistical heterogeneity. Results: Forty-five studies were eligible for inclusion of which 11 were cohort and 34 were case-control studies. Sixteen studies were of sufficient standard for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The summary odds ratio for the association between smoking and cleft lip and/or palate was 1.42 (95%CI 1.27 to 1.59) with a population attributable fraction of 4% (95%CI 3% - 5%). There was limited evidence to show a dose-response effect of smoking. Conclusions: This review reports a moderate association between maternal smoking and orofacial cleft but the overall quality of the conventional observational studies included was poor. There is a need for high quality and novel research strategies to further define the role of smoking in the etiology of cleft lip and palate.