EFFECTS OF MATERNAL AGE ON THE RISK OF BIRTH DEFECTS IN ZAMFARA STATE NIGERIA USING LOGISTIC REGRESSIONS MODEL

Birth defects refer to physical or functional abnormalities that happen during prenatal period and can lead to physical or cognitive disabilities, or even death. The causes of birth defects are often complex and can involve genetic, environmental, nutritional, and socioeconomic factors. This research work aimed to examine the effects of the communication between age of maternal and parity on adverse pregnancy outcomes in Zamfara State, Nigeria. Maternal data were categorized according to age of the maternal and number of parity. The data were analyzed using logistic regression method of analysis and the data were analyzed using R-Statistical software and the results shown that the maternal age of 30 year above without parity having low birth defects, followed by maternal age of 20-29 year without parity and less than 20 year old maternal without parity was having higher chance of birth defects. Also, maternal age with birth parity, with year old; maternal age of 20-29 year old; and maternal age of year old were having the following chances of birth defects, 0.04, 0.02 and 0.004 respectively. More so, it was concluded that odds ratios was used to measure the effects and relationship between the age group, the study found that, maternal age year old has higher significant effect on birth defect outcome, with odds ratios of birth defect of 10 times higher than a maternal age year old, compared to maternal age of between 20 – 29 year old with the odds of birth defect of 5 times larger than of maternal age year old.