EUROCAT

EUROCAT is a European network of population-based registries for the epidemiological surveillance of congenital anomalies. Starting from 1979 with more than 1.7 million births surveyed per year by 39 active registries with 33 full and 6 associate members in 21 countries.

These high quality multiple source registries, ascertaining terminations of pregnancy as well as births, covers 29% of the European birth population.

The objectives of EUROCAT

The objectives of EUROCAT are:

• to provide essential epidemiological information on congenital anomalies in Europe.
• to facilitate the early warning of new teratogenic exposures.
• to act as an information and resource center for the population, health professionals and managers regarding clusters or exposures or risk factors of concern.
• to evaluate the effectiveness of primary prevention.
• to assess the impact of developments in prenatal screening.
• to provide a ready collaborative network and infrastructure for research related to the causes and prevention of congenital anomalies and the treatment and care of those children.
• to act as a catalyst for the setting up of registries throughout Europe collecting comparable, standardised data.

NCARDRS shares data with EUROCAT in order to pool data across a wider geographical area, make comparisons across Europe and share expertise. EUROCAT meet the strict information governance standards for data processing.

Data from NCARDRS are available, together with data from all other EUROCAT registries, on the EUROCAT website.

• prevalence rates for just the English registers (registration required)
• prenatal detection rates * key public health indicators (perinatal mortality, rates of terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly)
• statistical monitoring (clusters and trends)

Congenital anomalies and public health

Congenital anomalies include structural (congenital malformations, deformations, disruptions and dysplasias) and chromosomal anomalies. They are the major cause of infant mortality, childhood morbidity, long-term disability. They are also the major cause of embryonic and fetal death.

Congenital anomalies are among the leading causes of years of potential life lost, and carry a high burden to those individuals, their families and the community in terms of quality of life, participation in the community and need for services.