The proportion of babies born with a congenital heart abnormality increased by 16% after the first year of the pandemic, according to research at City St George's, University of London and published today in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology . Heart defects are the most common type of anomaly that develop before a baby is born, with about 13 babies diagnosed with a congenital heart condition every day in the U.K.
and impacting 1 in 110 births globally. These include defects to the baby's heart valves, the major blood vessels in and around the heart, and the development of holes in the heart. In more than 18 million births, researchers analyzed data from US birth certificates from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between December 2016 and November 2022 to evaluate the effect of the pandemic on the number of babies born with a congenital heart defect.
They compared the number of babies born with a congenital heart condition every month before the COVID-19 pandemic (1st December 2016 to 30th November 2019) with those during the pandemic (1st December 2020 to 30th November 2022). This data was then compared to the number of babies born with Down Syndrome—a genetic condition not affected by the virus. This was to help ascertain if any differences observed might have been due to COVID-19, or if they were a result of other factors including limited access to antenatal services during the pandemic.
A total of 11,010,764 births before and 7,060,626 births dur.