EFFECT OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ON CLEFTS OF LIP, ALVEOLUS AND PALATE IN POPULATION BELONGING TO THE EASTERN PART OF INDIA

Abstract

Objective: The socioeconomic status of parents, specially the one in which the mother is brought up, affects her general health. This in turn can lead to the birth of a child with congenital abnormalities. A non-syndromic cleft of the lip, alveolus or palate (CLAP) is one of the common possibilities. Our objective was to explore association between socioeconomic status and occurrence of CLAP.

Methods: A total of 250 cases of non-syndromic CLAP in children of both sexes were studied over a period of one year at the pediatric surgery department of a tertiary care children’s hospital in Kolkata. The rural and urban residential status of the respective families was carefully ascertained. Descriptive analysis was done.

Results: Of 250 cases, 47 (18.80%) were affected with cleft lip, 139 (55.60%) with cleft lip and palate and 64 (25.60%) with cleft palate alone. Of the studied cases, 171(68.40%) came from rural areas.The affected rural families were socioeconomically weaker than their urban counterparts. The distribution of CLAP types differed significantly between rural and urban population with the frequency of cleft lip being higher in urban but that of cleft lip and palate higher in the rural population (p< 0.05).

Conclusion: Rural children predominate in the hospital population studied and tend to have greater frequency of complete clefting rather than cleft lip alone. The socioeconomic status may be a contributor towards this difference.