Epidemiological studies of neural tube defects in Newfoundland |
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Authors: | M Frecker F C Fraser |
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Affiliation: | Division of Community Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. |
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Abstract: | A 9-year survey of neural tube defects in Newfoundland showed (1) evidence for secular variation, with a peak in 1980, but no general downward trend as seen in some other populations; (2) significant geographic variation which did not correlate with hardness or nitrate content of the lake water; (3) a tendency for the proportion of females among anencephalic births to increase with increasing frequency of anencephaly among geographic regions. This supports previous evidence for a female-specific contribution to the causes of increased liability to neural tube defect. |
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