Hospitalisations up to adulthood for children born with orofacial clefts

© 2015 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians). Aim The aim of this study was to compare hospital admissions from infancy to adulthood, between children born with orofacial clefts (OFC) and those without OFC. Methods The method used was a cohort study using record-linked administrative datasets. Participants included all children liveborn in Western Australia (WA) between 1980 and 2010 diagnosed with OFC, who were frequency matched by year of birth to randomly selected liveborn children without OFC. We calculated rate ratios (RR) of hospital admission, number and reason of admissions, cumulative length of stay, for each cleft type (cleft lip only (CLO), cleft lip and palate (CL+P), cleft palate only (CPO), no OFC) and by age period (infancy, pre-school, primary and high school ages, and early adulthood). Results Overall, 1396 children were diagnosed with an OFC and compared with 6566 children without OFC. Individuals born with OFC were up to three times more likely to be admitted to hospital, had more admissions and longer cumulative length of stay in all age periods. Children with OFC were also more likely to be admitted for ear and digestive system conditions (RR up to 30 and six times higher, respectively). Children with CL+P and CPO were more likely to be admitted for respiratory conditions (RR 1.3-2.0) and children with CPO were six times more likely to be admitted for care for other congenital anomalies. Conclusions Throughout childhood, individuals born with OFC were more likely to be admitted, and had more hospitalisations than those without OFC. Children born with CL+P or CPO had a higher hospitalisation burden than children born with CLO.