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. 2010 Nov 30;122(22):2254-63.
doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.947002. Epub 2010 Nov 22.

Mortality resulting from congenital heart disease among children and adults in the United States, 1999 to 2006

Suzanne M Gilboa  1 , Jason L Salemi, Wendy N Nembhard, David E Fixler, Adolfo Correa
Affiliations

Mortality resulting from congenital heart disease among children and adults in the United States, 1999 to 2006

Suzanne M Gilboa et al. Circulation. .

Abstract

Background: Previous reports suggest that mortality resulting from congenital heart disease (CHD) among infants and young children has been decreasing. There is little population-based information on CHD mortality trends and patterns among older children and adults.

Methods and results: We used data from death certificates filed in the United States from 1999 to 2006 to calculate annual CHD mortality by age at death, race-ethnicity, and sex. To calculate mortality rates for individuals ≥1 year of age, population counts from the US Census were used in the denominator; for infant mortality, live birth counts were used. From 1999 to 2006, there were 41,494 CHD-related deaths and 27,960 deaths resulting from CHD (age-standardized mortality rates, 1.78 and 1.20 per 100,000, respectively). During this period, mortality resulting from CHD declined 24.1% overall. Mortality resulting from CHD significantly declined among all race-ethnicities studied. However, disparities persisted; overall and among infants, mortality resulting from CHD was consistently higher among non-Hispanic blacks compared with non-Hispanic whites. Infant mortality accounted for 48.1% of all mortality resulting from CHD; among those who survived the first year of life, 76.1% of deaths occurred during adulthood (≥18 years of age).

Conclusions: CHD mortality continued to decline among both children and adults; however, differences between race-ethnicities persisted. A large proportion of CHD-related mortality occurred during infancy, although significant CHD mortality occurred during adulthood, indicating the need for adult CHD specialty management.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Annual age-standardized mortality resulting from CHD, by race-ethnicity, United States, 1999–2006
Figure 2
Figure 2
Age-specific mortality resulting from CHD, by race-ethnicity, United States, 1999–2006
Figure 3
Figure 3
Median age (in days) at death resulting from CHD, by UCOD, United States, 1999–2006
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • How many patients? How many doctors?
    Hoffman JI. Hoffman JI. Circulation. 2010 Nov 30;122(22):2231-3. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.989350. Circulation. 2010. PMID: 21147727 No abstract available.

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