2002/03/01 by Joan K. Morris, David Mutton, Eva Alberman · 2 citations
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Prenatal Screening and Diagnostics #Down syndrome and intellectual disability research #Disability Rights and Representation
paper · doi:10.1136/jms.9.1.2
openalex publication_date 2002/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
OBJECTIVES: To revise the estimates of maternal age specific live birth prevalence of Down's syndrome in the absence of antenatal screening and selective termination using newly available data. SETTING AND DESIGN: Data were used from the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register (NDSCR), which contains information on nearly all antenatally or postnatally diagnosed cases of Down's syndrome in which a karyotype was confirmed between 1989 and 1998 in England and Wales. It is the largest single series of data on the prevalence of Down's syndrome. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The prevalence does not continue increasing at an increasing rate with age above age 45 as has been previously assumed. Above this age the rate of increase declines with increasing age. The overall age pattern is sigmoidal. A new logit logistic model is proposed which fits the data well. The risk of a Down's syndrome live birth is given by: risk=1/(1+exp(7.330-4.211/(1+exp(-0.282x(age-37.23))))).