Study Links CV Mortality Rise to Maternal Health Disparities: Daily Dose

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On March 25, 2025, we reported on a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (ACC.25) that was designed to examine trends and disparities in the leading cause of maternal mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD), over the past 2 decades.

The study

Researchers analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) database to identify women of reproductive age (aged 15-44 years) who experienced maternal mortality from CVD from 1999 to 2022. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) per 1 000 000 individuals were calculated and stratified by year, race, and US census region, according to the study abstract.

The findings

Over the 22-year period, there were 7581 maternal deaths due to CVD among the study population. Among all participants, AAMR from CVD-related mortality increased from 3.62 in 1999 to 9.08 in 2022, reaching a peak of 10.52 in 2021, according to the results. From 2018 to 2022, Black women experienced a maternal mortality rate of 21.9 per million, approximately three times higher than the 7.1 per million rate observed among White women. Geographically, maternal mortality was highest in the South (12.1 per million) and lowest in the West (5.4 per million).

Authors' comments

"Maternal mortality due to CVD in the US has more than doubled in the lass 22 years, has disproportionately affected Black women, and reached a peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such unacceptable rates demand further investigation into identifying women at greatest risk, reducing disparities, and improving maternal outcomes of CVD. "

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