The Relationship between Neonatal Gastroschisis, Maternal BMI and Social Deprivation in a UK Population

Author(s): Hale J, Derbyshire A, Taylor A, Osmond C, Wellesley D, Howe DT

In this paper, we examine the association between social deprivation and gastroschisis in a UK population. We used the UK postcode to determine social deprivation using the government Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). IMD ranks areas from 1 being the most deprived to 32,844 as the least socially deprived area. This is the first time that IMD has been used to examine a potential link between social deprivation and any fetal abnormality. Our findings suggest that social deprivation is associated with low maternal age, but is not an additional risk for fetal gastroschisis.