A Study of Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate Births in California, 1955

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Abstract
The Division of Dental Health and the Bureau of Records and Statistics of the California State Department of Public Health studied the 1955 California birth certicicates mentioning cleft lip or cleft palate. An analysis of the data resulted in the following: Of the 313,164 live births in California in 1955,368 of the birth certificates mentioned cleft lip or cleft palate. This is a ratio of 1.18 cases per 1000 or 1 per 851 live births. A higher percentage of males than females had cleft lip and palate and clift lip only; a higher percentage of females had cleft palate only. 92.7% of the cases were white, 3.5% were Negro, and 3.8% were members of other races. Comparing these percentages with the total live births, it was found that the percentage of Negro cases was significantly lower than the percentage of total Negro births in the State. The percentage of cases occurring to mothers 35 years of age and over was significantly higher than the percentage of total births to mothers under 35. The percentage of premature births in the cleft lip and cleft palate group far exceeded the percentage of prematures in the total live birth population (19% of the cases, 7% of the total births). Of the 368 cases, 67 had other congenital malformations mentioned on the birth certificate. The 67 had a total of 127 malformations in addition to cleft lip and cleft palate. Fifty-seven of the 368 cases died within the first 6 months of life; 44 died within the first month. Only 6 of the deaths were coded to cleft lip and cleft palate.

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