Age-adjusted mortality rate from CVD-related mortality increased from 3.62 to 9.08 per 100,000 among women aged 15 to 44 years
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, April 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — From 1999 to 2022, there was a considerable increase in maternal mortality due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held from March 29 to 31 in Chicago.
Mohammad Ahabab Hossain, M.D., from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, and colleagues queried the CDC-WONDER database to identify women of reproductive age (15 to 44 years) who experienced maternal mortality from CVD from 1999 to 2022. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) were calculated per 1 million individuals and were stratified by year, race, and U.S. census region.
The researchers found 7,581 maternal deaths from CVD among the study population during the 22-year period. From 1999 to 2022, there was an increase in AAMR from CVD-related mortality, from 3.62 to 9.08 among all women aged 15 to 44 years, with a peak of 10.52 in 2021. From 2018 to 2022, the highest AAMR was seen in Black women versus White women (21.91 versus 7.10) and in the South versus the West (12.14 versus 5.41).
“The United States is supposed to be a global leader in advancing health and medicine, and the fact that we still have pregnant women who are dying — often because of preventable causes — should sound alarm bells,” Hossain said in a statement. “The fact that there are disparities based on race means we need to pay better attention to more vulnerable populations, specifically Black women.”
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