THURSDAY, Oct. 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The infant mortality rate from congenital heart disease (CHD) declined significantly for White, but not Black, infants in the United States from 2005 to 2019, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, held from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 in Orlando, Florida.

Kwadwo Danso, M.B.Ch.B., from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, and colleagues examined the differences in CHD mortality trends between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White infants in the United States from 2005 to 2019 using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wide-ranging online data for Epidemiologic Research.

The researchers found that of 60.2 million live births, there were 19,004 CHD-related infant deaths. Overall, the CHD infant mortality rate declined from 36.1 to 27.0 per 100,000 live births (25.2 percent) during the study period, with an average annual percentage change (AAPC) of −2.1. The CHD infant mortality rate was significantly higher in Black versus White infants (40 versus 29.3), with this difference persisting when the CHD mortality rate was stratified by the neonatal and postneonatal periods. Over time, the CHD infant mortality rate decreased significantly in White infants (AAPC, −2 percent), but the change was not significant in Black infants (AAPC, −1.4 percent). The Black:White CHD infant mortality rate ratio averaged 1.4, with no significant change over time (AAPC, 0.8 percent).

“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,” Danso said in a statement. “More research is needed on this disparity to understand why Black infants with congenital heart disease are more likely to die.”

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