THE INCIDENCE OF CARDIAC MALFORMATIONS IN GREENLANDIC ESKIMOS

• Published in: Acta Medica Scandinavica
• Main Authors: Harvald, Bent, Hels, Jørgen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1969
• Subjects: Greenland; eskimo*; Godthåb; greenlandic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0954-6820.1969.tb07295.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.0954-6820.1969.tb07295.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.0954-6820.1969.tb07295.x

Abstract. 757 children born in Godthåb, Greenland, in the years 1957–1964 were reexamined in 1966. Ten certain and four probable cases of congenital heart disease were diagnosed, mostly cases of ventricular septal defect. The incidence of 1.3‐1.9% is the highest registered in any ethnic group. The average mother's age of the patients was 32.1 years, the average mother's age of the total material 26.8 years. This difference is significant. The patients' average number in the sibship was 6.3, differing significantly from that of 3.2 in the total material. The social standard of the families of the patients was low. There is some indication that the incidence of cardiac malformations in the Greenlandic population is decreasing. This may be due either to improved social conditions or to a changing reproductive pattern with relatively fewer children born to old mothers.