Prevalence of congenital heart disease in rural population of Himachal - A population-based study.

AIM: There is no community-based study about the prevalence of congenital heart disease (CHD) in Himachal; hence, we undertook this study. METHODS AND RESULTS: A population-based survey was done in four villages of different districts of Himachal Pradesh. In total, 1882 persons were examined. 909 were male and 973 were female. There were 12 cases of CHD in the population (6.3/1000): four of these were male (33.3%) and 8 were female (66.6%). Mean age of these patients was 19.5±11.07 years. Atrial septal defect (ASD) was the commonest lesion followed by ventricular septal defect (VSD). CONCLUSION: Prevalence of CHD in general population was 6.3/1000. ASD was the commonest lesion. CHD was more common in female.