WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Zubair Aziz Gerdo*

ABSTRACT

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a reasonably frequent congenital disability affecting thestructure, function and location of heart or nearby major vessels with a prevalence of 3.5-17.5 per 1000 live births.It is increasingly responsible for pediatric deaths, particularly in developing countries. CHD has a broad clinicalspectrum that varies according on the age at which it manifests. The majority of patients with congenital heartdisease exhibit symptoms within the first year of their lives. Objectives: To assess the risk factors for congenitalheart disease among less than five years children in Mosul-Iraq. Methods: A case control study, included 100randomly selected child, of them 50 children had congenital heart disease and matched with 50 children withoutcongenital heart disease. The study conducted from June 1st, 2024, to April 1st, 2025 at Talafar and Mosul generalhospitals in Nineveh, Iraq. Patients with syndromes or older than five were excluded from the study. Thequestionnaire included four parts, part one for socio-demographic information of the study participants and theirmothers, part two for the patient’s clinical presentation, part three for the diagnosis of CHD and part four for theprenatal risk factors. Results: The mean age of the study participants is 2.32 ± 1.47 years. Of them (52%) weremales and (48%) were females. It’s evidence that the mean weight ± standard deviation of the cases is lesser thanthe mean weight ± standard deviation of the controls (P value <0.001). Moreover; the presence of positive CHD infamily is higher among cases than in controls. The majority of patients (38%) presented with chest infection,while cyanosis, both chest infection and cyanosis and accidental diagnosis were presented among (24%), (8%)and (30%) respectively. Ventricular septal defect was present among 12 (24%) patients, while patent ductusarteriosus, atrial septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary stenosis, coarctation of aorta and complex defectwere present among 9 (18%), 8 (16%), 7 (14%), 3 (6%), 3 (6%), 8 (16%) respectively. Lastly; paternalconsanguinity was found to be higher among cases (P value < 0.001). Conclusion: The study concluded that it isessential to comprehend the risk factors for CHDs in order to prevent them. The majority of cases were under ayear old, lived in an urban area, and arrived with a chest infection and VSD. There was also a significantconnection between CHDs and family history of CHDs, and the weight was lower in CHD cases than in controls.