Black infants with heart abnormalities more likely to die in first year, research finds

Some babies are born with abnormalities involving the structure of the heart, known as congenital heart disease (CHD). While many studies have shown that more babies with congenital heart disease are surviving past their first birthday as deaths from CHD have significantly decreased in the United States, a research abstract found that race impacts these survival rates.

Black infants with congenital heart disease are 40% more likely to die in the first year of life than white infants with congenital heart disease, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center from Sept. 27–Oct. 1.

The research, “Trend in Racial Differences in Mortality Attributed to Congenital Heart Diseases in Infants in the United States from 2005 to 2019,” found that improvements in death rates for children with heart abnormalities were due to reduced death rates for white babies with congenital heart disease.

“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,” said lead author Kwadwo Danso, MBChB.

Researchers 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, to investigate if death rates varied based on race for children born with CHD.

They found that the overall congenital heart disease infant mortality rate declined from 36.1 to 27.0 per 100,000 live births, down 25.2%. However, throughout the study, Black infants with congenital heart disease died at higher rates.

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