Journal article
Congenital abnormalities in Pacific Island Countries and Territories: a scoping review
BMC Public Health, Vol.Advanced access
01-May-2026
PMID: 42067781
Abstract
Background
Pacific Island Countries and Territories experience disproportionately high rates of stillbirth, neonatal, and childhood deaths, yet the drivers of these outcomes remain unclear. The impact of congenital abnormalities within the Pacific has not been clearly established, despite these abnormalities being a leading global cause of infant and child mortality. This scoping review maps available literature to determine the current knowledge of congenital abnormalities in Pacific Island Countries and Territories.
Methods
Two independent reviewers searched six scholarly databases (PubMed, Scopus, CINHL, Proquest, Web of Science and Google Scholar) in addition to performing targeted web searches for grey literature. Searches were limited to sixteen Pacific Island Countries and Territories and extracted data was analysed as thematic summaries.
Results
Seventy-two sources were included in the final review. Papua New Guinea was the most represented Pacific nation in identified literature. Congenital abnormalities were commonly reported without description or specification to identify the type of abnormality, but congenital heart defects (n = 17) and neural tube defects (n = 13) were most often reported. The burden of congenital abnormalities between Pacific Island Countries and Territories was not comparable due to limited and varied data collection and reporting methods in the literature.
Conclusions
Our exploration of the body of knowledge on congenital abnormalities in Pacific Island Countries and Territories shows that there is an unequal representation of Pacific nations in literature focused on congenital abnormality research and reporting. This gap may reflect variations in the capacity for health research across different Pacific nations. The paucity of literature and generalised reporting of congenital abnormalities further demonstrates ongoing challenges to health surveillance pertaining to common causes of stillbirth, neonatal and childhood deaths in the region.
Details
- Title
- Congenital abnormalities in Pacific Island Countries and Territories: a scoping review
- Authors
- Eliza Kitchener - University of the Sunshine CoastRachael Thurecht - University of the Sunshine CoastJemma Mackrill - University of the Sunshine CoastBarnaby Dixson - University of the Sunshine CoastGeorgia Kafer (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- BMC Public Health, Vol.Advanced access
- Publisher
- BioMed Central Ltd.
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12889-026-27322-3
- ISSN
- 1471-2458
- PMID
- 42067781
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Biomedicine; Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; School of Health; School of Health - Psychology; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991226929502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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