Congenital heart disease is a problem with the heart’s structure that a baby is born with. In this condition, the heart or the blood vessels near the heart don’t develop normally before birth.
Studies have shown that more babies with congenital heart disease (CHD) are living past their first birthday because deaths from CHD have decreased a lot in the United States. However, a new study found that racism can affect how likely they are to survive.
The research was presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center on Sept. 27- Oct. 1, suggesting that black infants with CHD are more likely to die in the first year of life than white infants with the same condition.
For the study, scientists examined data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on 60,243,988 live births, which included 19,004 congenital heart disease-related infant deaths. They determined if there are variations in death rates based on race for children born with CHD.
They found that the overall rate of babies with congenital heart disease dying decreased from 36.1 to 27.0 per 100,000 live births, which is a drop of 25.2%. However, during the study, Black infants with congenital heart disease had higher death rates compared to others.
The improvements in death rates were mainly because the death rates for white babies with congenital heart disease decreased.
Lead author Kwadwo Danso, MBChB, said, “The death rate in white infants decreased significantly, but the rate in Black infants did not. Overall, we also found that Black infants died from these abnormal heart structures at a rate that was 1.4 times that of white infants.”
“Our findings may have implications for patient care and public health policy by serving as a foundation for additional studies to determine the drivers behind these disparities. More research is needed on this disparity to understand why Black infants with congenital heart disease are more likely to die.”
Abstract Title: Trend in racial differences in mortality attributed to Congenital Heart Diseases in infants in the United States from 2005 to 2019.
Note: Only the abstract is being presented at the meeting. In some cases, the researcher may have more data to share with the media or may be preparing a longer article for submission to a journal.
