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Insurance-Related Disparities Seen in Prenatal Diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Oct 8, 2024.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Oct. 8, 2024 -- Second-trimester ultrasound receipt mediates a considerable portion of the association between public insurance and prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD), according to a study published online Sept. 23 in Prenatal Diagnosis.

Joyce L. Woo, M.D., from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of electronic health records of pregnant women whose infants received CHD surgery between 2019 and 2020 to examine the mechanism underlying insurance-related disparities in prenatal diagnosis of CHD.

A total of 496 pregnant women met the inclusion criteria: 43.3 percent were publicly insured and 61.5 percent had prenatal diagnosis. Public insurance was associated with a 12.6 percent lower probability of prenatal diagnosis in bivariate regressions. Public insurance was associated with a 13.2 percent lower probability of second-trimester ultrasound receipt in multivariable models, but was no longer associated with prenatal diagnosis after adjustment for second-trimester ultrasound receipt. Second-trimester ultrasound receipt mediated 39 percent of the association between public insurance and prenatal diagnosis in a mediation analysis.

"Understanding the reasons behind insurance-related disparities in getting prenatal diagnosis -- such as getting the second-trimester ultrasound -- allows for the development of policies and programs that could lessen these disparities," Woo said in a statement.

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

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