AIM   To investigate the effect of maternal age on congenital heart disease in offspring.

  METHODS   A case control study was conducted. Mothers whose infants were diagnosed as having CHD by cardiac ultrasound and born in our hospital from August 2017 to August 2019 were chosen as case group and healthy controls were selected from the mothers whose infants had no CHD and were born during the same time in our hospital. Mothers in the two groups filled out questionnaire. According to the age of delivery, the mothers were divided into four subgroups: <30 years old, 30-34 years old, 35-39 years old and ≥40 years old. χ2 or Fisher exact test was used for the comparison between the subgroups and a multi-independent logistic regression model was used for the subgroup analysis. The <30-year-old subgroup was used as reference group for 30-34-year-old subgroup, 35-39-year-old subgroup and ≥40-year-old subgroup. The risk of congenital diseases associated with each maternal subgroup was indicated by adjusted ratio (adjusted OR) and 95% CI.

  RESULTS   An analysis of mothers of 539 no congenital heart disease children and 539 mothers of infants without congenital heart disease showed that the OR (95% CI) values of children with congenital heart disease were 1.2 (0.9, 1.5) and 1.9 (0.8, 4.2) in 30-34-year-old subgroup and ≥40-year-old subgroup, respectively, but such an increase was not significant.

  CONCLUSION   As maternal age increases, the risk of congenital heart disease in the offspring increases, but the increase is not significant.