Health
More kids born with Down
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-02 09:40
A growing number of children in the United States are being born with Down syndrome, federal researchers say. The overriding reason, experts add, is that more older women are having babies.
Data from 10 regional registries of birth defects show that the incidence of Down syndrome among US children increased by 31 percent between 1979 and 2003, from 9 to 11.8 per 100,000 live births.
Down syndrome occurs when a child has an extra 21st chromosome, of the 23 that determine genetic characteristics. Though most people think of the syndrome as a cause of mental retardation, some children with Down do not need special schools, says Dr Siobhan Dolan, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and women's health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
But the extra chromosome is associated with a number of major physical problems, including life-threatening heart abnormalities.
