Here is another recent article that highlights the inequities in public health. The article is on USA Today and is entitled “Heart defect diagnosis often comes too late – or not at all – for Latino infants, study finds”. It makes reference to this study The Impact of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status, Race and Ethnicity, and Language on Prenatal Diagnosis of CHD.
The study finds that “Infants born to Latino, low-income or limited-English-speaking parents are more likely to be diagnosed later with congenital heart disease than white infants – or lack a prenatal diagnosis at all, a new study found.”
The article discusses that the findings are:
- “Babies born to Latina mothers were 3.2 times less likely to be diagnosed before birth compared with their white counterparts.
- Babies born to mothers with a preferred language other than English were five times more likely to lack a prenatal diagnosis than those born to English speakers.
- Non-English-speaking mothers who did receive a prenatal diagnosis were diagnosed, on average,five weeks later than English-speaking patients.
- Those from neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status were diagnosed up to 3.4 weeks later.”
According to the CDC website, “Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are the most common type of birth defect. ” and “About 1 in 4 babies born with a heart defect has a critical CHD (also known as critical congenital heart defect).1 Babies with a critical CHD need surgery or other procedures in the first year of life.”
Gianelle, M., Turan, S., Mech, J. et al. The Impact of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status, Race and Ethnicity, and Language on Prenatal Diagnosis of CHD. Pediatr Cardiol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-023-03095-z
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