Influence of Ethnicity on the Incidence Rate of Oral Clefts in Northern Iran

Oral clefting including cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P), are considered as common congenital anomalies, particularly in Asia population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence rate of CL/P according to ethnicity in Northern Iran.
This cross-sectional, analytic study was carried out on 92 420 live newborns in Golestan province, the Northern Iran, from 2008-2011. The newborns were evaluated for the CL/P and recorded according to ICD10. Gender, ethnicity and parental consanguinity were filled out for each subject. The subjects grouped according to ethnicity into native Fars, Turkmen, and Sistani groups.
The rate of oral clefts was determined 0.72 per 1000 live newborns. The incidence rate of CL/P was 0.69 per 1000 in males and 0.75 per 1000 in females. The incidence of CL/P among native Fars, Turkmen and Sistani was 0.96, 0.61, and 0.57 per 1000 live births, respectively.
The incidence rate of oral clefting was lower than in our previous study (1.05 per 1000), and it was higher in the native Fars population.