Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip Incidence in Ethiopian Jews Revisited: 7-Year Prospective Study

Abstract

We describe the sonographic and true incidence of developmental dysplasia of the hip among Ethiopian Jews compared with the general Israeli population. Previous results were based on a small number of Jewish Ethiopian children; this study is based on over 7 years of experience, during which 34 048 newborns, 768 of whom were Ethiopian, were examined clinically and sonographically. The incidence of sonographic developmental hip dysplasia was 5.5% in the general Israeli population, compared with 1.24% for the Ethiopian Jews. True developmental hip dysplasia incidence for Arabs and other Jews was 0.51%, as compared with 0.15% in the Ethiopians. Our data support the theory that either a single unknown gene or a multiple gene system plays a major role in the incidence of the dysplasia.