NCARDRS Congenital Condition Official Statistics Report, 2023

Geographical variation in congenital condition birth prevalence may be associated with differences in case ascertainment resulting from different data sources, access to remote data systems and the regional variation in the length of time registration has been established. Improvement in data completeness and ascertainment in certain regions over time may also explain the overall increase in prevalence seen at a national level compared to previous years. Periodically, sources of ascertainment can drop temporarily, or new sources can improve ascertainment substantially.  For this report, a summary of Data Sources has been supplied alongside the Technical Details that accompany this report which details the sources of ascertainment of cases across the country.  Known challenges to ascertainment exist in the East Midlands where we have worked actively to improve data flows. The impact of this may become evident in future birth  years.  

As data accumulates over time, some of these geographical differences may be reduced. Updated birth prevalence estimates for previous years by condition, nationally, and by region and ICB, can be found in Data tables 3a to 3c (2018 - 2022).

However, there are other reasons which could influence the results presented, such as disease clustering, exposure to  teratogens, demographic variation including age at delivery, deprivation profiles between regions and the composition of the local population.  

As NCARDRS accumulates more data at a national level over time, and registration in newer regions matures, greater insights will be gained into underlying population characteristics contributing to regional variation, as well as the ability to analyse associations with lifestyle and environmental factors, which may potentially be modifiable.