Abstract
Congenital anomalies are still the leading cause of death in children under 5 years of age. A study
of the prevalence of congenital anomalies in Thailand was conducted in 2014-2016, since then there is
no current data. Therefore, a retrospective study was conducted to examine the current prevalence of
congenital anomalies in Thailand. Methods: A retrospective study using the 43-file standard dataset from
the Health Data Center, Ministry of Public Health was conducted. Data including ICD10 (International
Classification of Disease tenth revision) codes of 18 birth defect groups and child birthdates between
2008 and 2022 were collected and analyzed for the prevalence of each disorder. Results: The prevalence
of 18 congenital anomalies was approximately 2 percent. The five most common congenital anomalies
were congenital heart defects, limb anomalies, cleft lip/cleft palate, Down syndrome, and urinary tract
obstruction, respectively. The prevalence of Down syndrome has been reduced steadily since 2016. The
prevalence of congenital hydrocephalus and neural tube defects was found to be approximately 0.03
percent (among the top 10 common congenital anomalies). Conclusion: Congenital abnormality is still
an important problem for children at the national level.
