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. 2025 Jun 30:21:100607.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijcchd.2025.100607. eCollection 2025 Sep.

Trends in congenital heart disease mortality in the United States from 1968 to 2022

Zahra Imran  1 , Taimor Mohammed Khan  1 , Saad Ahmed Waqas  1 , Raheel Ahmed  2 , Abdul Mannan Khan Minhas  3
Affiliations

Trends in congenital heart disease mortality in the United States from 1968 to 2022

Zahra Imran et al. Int J Cardiol Congenit Heart Dis. .

Abstract

Purpose: Congenital heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of infant mortality due to birth defects in the United States. We analyzed long-term CHD mortality trends across age, sex, and racial groups from 1968 to 2022.

Methods: We extracted CHD mortality data from the CDC WONDER database (1968-2022), using ICD-8/9/10 codes. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) and crude mortality rates (CMRs) were calculated per 100,000 population. Joinpoint regression was used to assess temporal trends in mortality, reporting annual percentage changes (APCs) and average APCs (AAPCs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs).

Results: From 1968 to 2019, 234,658 CHD-related deaths were recorded. Overall AAMR declined from 3.2 (1968) to 0.8 (2019) per 100,000 (AAPC: -2.7 %; 95 % CI: -2.9 to -2.5). Males consistently had higher AAMRs than females. Racial disparities persisted, with slower declines among Black or African American individuals. Infants under 1 year accounted for 56.0 % of CHD deaths and showed the steepest mortality decline (AAPC: -3.2 %). Mortality rates plateaued in recent years.

Conclusions: CHD mortality in the U.S. has declined markedly over the past five decades, though progress has slowed since 2009. Persistent disparities by race and sex emphasize the need for equitable access to specialized CHD care and ongoing public health efforts.

Keywords: Congenital; Epidemiology; Heart defects; Mortality; United States.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Age-adjusted mortality rates for the overall population and gender (A), and race (B), and crude mortality rates for <1 year age group (C), and 1–4 years, 5–19 years and 20+ years age group (D).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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