PP079 - FIRST-TRIMESTER IRON SUPPLEMENTATION DURING PREGNANCY LOWERS THE CHANCE OF CONGENITAL ANOMALIES IN THE OFFSPRING: A SUBSET ANALYSIS OF A MATCHED CASE‐CONTROL DATABASE

PP079

FIRST-TRIMESTER IRON SUPPLEMENTATION DURING PREGNANCY LOWERS THE CHANCE OF CONGENITAL ANOMALIES IN THE OFFSPRING: A SUBSET ANALYSIS OF A MATCHED CASE‐CONTROL DATABASE

I. Pinto Amorim Das Virgens^1,*, G. Agócs^1,2, A. Kubik^1,3, S. Váncsa¹, A. Rancz¹, P. Hegyi¹, N. Ács^1,4

¹Centre for Translational Medicine, ²Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology, ³Department of Urology, ⁴Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

Rationale: Congenital anomalies (CAs), defined as functional or structural disorders that occur during the gestational period, affect approximately 3% to 6% of newborns worldwide. Our aim was to investigate whether iron-deficiency anemia and iron supplementation can influence the risk of CAs.

Methods: A subset of the population-based Hungarian Case-Control for Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (HCCSCA) was analyzed. Our eligibility criteria consisted of pregnant women with information on anemia and iron supplementation during the first trimester. We fitted two conditional logistic regression models to assess the effect of first-trimester anemia. Both models were adjusted for folate supplementation, smoking, educational level, and maternal age, modelled using natural cubic splines with three degrees of freedom. Results were reported as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Analyses were performed in R (version 4.4.3).

Results: A total of 21,513 mothers were included. The case group exhibited higher rates of primiparity and smoking (36.5% vs 22.6%), and a lower educational level than controls. The most frequent CAs were circulatory (n=2,402), musculoskeletal (n=1,690), and genital (n=1,613) malformations. Anemia during the first trimester was not significantly associated with the overall incidence of CAs (OR=0.92; 95%CI: 0.71–1.19) or specific malformation types, showing poor predictive value (AUC=0.616). However, among anemic mothers, iron supplementation during the first trimester was associated with a 40% reduction in the odds of all CAs (OR=0.60; 95%CI: 0.37–0.98).

Conclusion: Anemia during the first trimester of pregnancy does not pose a higher risk for CAs in the offspring. However, iron supplementation during this period showed a 40% lower risk for all types of CAs in the anemic group.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared