A critical review of the prevalence of cleft lip and cleft palate in Arab countries

Background: Orofacial cleft can occur as an isolated birth defect, a nonsyndromic abnormality, or as part of a syndrome with multiple congenital anomalies, and its prevalence can vary by ethnicity, sex and geographic location. Aim: To review literature on the prevalence of orofacial cleft in Arab countries. Methods: A search of relevant publications, in English, on the prevalence of orofacial cleft in Arab countries was performed on Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus using several keywords, including the name of each Arab country. Results: Our findings show an average prevalence of orofacial cleft of 1.1 per 1000 livebirths, with a range of 0.3–2.6 per 1000 livebirths in the Arab countries. There were inconsistencies in reporting for the different countries and in the methodologies used. Various publications from the same countries reported different prevalence figures. Conclusions: The inconsistency in the findings from this study indicate an urgent need for Arab countries to establish comprehensive national birth defect surveillance systems or expand existing systems to provide reliable and up-to-date evidence for policy, practice and interventions.