Introduction:

Birth defects affect 2-3% of births contributing an important load to the causes of infant morbidity and mortality during the first five years of life. In Colombia, they are the second cause of infant mortality according to reports from the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) 2011.

Objective:

To describe the state of health and barriers in the health care of children with congenital defects born between 2011 and 2017 in two institutions of Cali.

Materials and methods:

We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional observational study. We included babies born between January, 2011, and December, 2017, with at least one congenital defect who were followed up by telephone.

Results:

Out of 54,193 births during the period, 1,389 (2.56%) newborns had at least one congenital defect. All cases were classified according to the prognostic scale and 881 were included in the follow-up. The most frequent congenital defect was congenital cardiac malformation with 88 cases (9.99%), followed by malformation/defect of the kidney with 73 cases (8.29%), Down syndrome with 72 cases (8.17%), and testicular abnormalities with 56 cases (6.36%). Out of the 454 cases with effective follow-up, 161 (35.46%) of the caregivers stated that they had experienced at least one type of barrier during health care.

Conclusion:

Follow-up programs should be implemented for patients with birth defects to contribute to reducing morbidity and mortality.

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