Comorbidity and poor birth outcome for absolute and relative microcephaly versus normocephaly
| Mortality/morbidity | Absolute microcephaly (N=129) | Non-absolute microcephaly (N=44 136) | AOR* (95% CI) | Relative microcephaly (N=111) | Non-relative microcephaly (N=45 552) | AOR* (95% CI) |
| n, per 1000 | n, per 1000 | n, per 1000 | n, per 1000 | |||
| In-hospital mortality | 0 | 90 (2.0)† | NS | 5 (45.0) | 96 (2.1) | 11.7 (4.31 to 31.7) |
| Preterm (33–36 weeks) | 22 (170.5) | 3550 (80.4) | 1.96 (1.20 to 3.23) | 31 (279.3) | 4171 (91.6) | 1.67 (1.02 to 2.74) |
| 1 min Apgar score <8 | 7 (54.3) | 948 (21.5) | 1.98 (1.06 to 4.09) | 13 (117.1) | 1083 (23.8) | 2.61 (1.41 to 4.87) |
| 5 min Apgar score <8 | 0 | 147 (3.3)† | NS | 4 (36.0) | 160 (3.5) | 3.61 (1.21 to 10.7) |
| Necrotising enterocolitis | 0 | 52 (1.2) | NS | 1 (9.0) | 60 (1.3) | 2.40 (0.31 to 18.0) |
| Intracranial haemorrhage | 1 (7.8) | 134 (3.0) | 1.93 (0.26 to 14.2) | 4 (36.0) | 154 (3.4) | 6.95 (2.41 to 20.1) |
| Bronchopulmonary dysplasia | 0 | 22 (0.5)† | NS | 1 (9.0) | 24 (0.5) | 10.1 (1.24 to 82.2) |
| Birth hypoxia | 4 (31.0) | 629 (14.3) | 1.62 (0.59 to 4.47) | 10 (90.1) | 710 (15.6) | 2.64 (1.31 to 5.31) |
| Feeding difficulties | 9 (69.8) | 2346 (53.2) | 1.41 (0.71 to 2.79) | 5 (45.1) | 2115 (46.4) | 0.21 (0.03 to 1.50) |
| Signs of seizure | 1 (7.8) | 29 (0.7) | 8.76 (1.11 to 69.1) | 0 | 31 (0.7)† | NS |
| Sepsis of newborn | 0 | 95 (2.2)† | NS | 1 (9.0) | 105 (2.3) | 1.69 (0.22 to 13.0) |
| Respiratory distress syndrome | 1 (7.8) | 449 (10.2) | 0.61 (0.08 to 4.43) | 15 (135.1) | 516 (11.3) | 7.07 (3.87 to 12.9) |
| Length of stay >10 days ‡ | 19 (147.3) | 1877 (42.5) | 3.23 (1.94 to 5.39) | 35 (315.3) | 2232 (49.0) | 4.47 (3.01 to 7.46) |
| Length of stay (mean±SD, day)‡ | 5.9±6.8*** | 4.0±3.2 | 10.1±10.0*** | 4.1±3.5 |
***P<0.001.
*Models contain absolute or relative microcephaly as the exposure, and birth issues as outcomes, and are adjusted for infant gender, parity, maternal age, ethnicity, education, TORCH agents, exposure to teratogens, pre-eclampsia, diabetes mellitus and chronic illness.
†Fisher’s exact test is applied, and NS denotes non-significance.
‡Infant in-hospital deaths were excluded for the calculation of length of stay.
AOR, adjusted OR; TORCH, Toxoplasma gondii, rubella virus, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus.