US maternal mortality increased 33% during pandemic: Study

[berkeman]

Oh my, this is disturbing, IMO. I'm not sure what we could have done better -- we already were trying to reach out to minorities (at least locally here in Silicon Valley) about vaccine hesitancy and other issues, but to see such a sharp up-tick in maternal deaths is discouraging. Maybe in the next Pandemic (hopefully it doesn't happen for a few hundred years if ever given medical advances), we need to go door-to-door to try to provide better medical care...

US maternal mortality increased 33% during pandemic: Study​

"This issue is not new and the pandemic just reiterates the problems we already face in this country," Dr. Jacques Moritz, a board certified OB/GYN and medical director at Tia, a health care model that includes multiple clinics and services for female-related health care needs, told ABC News.

Researchers analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to see how COVID-19 affected maternal deaths during or within 42 days after pregnancy. They recorded the number of deaths associated with and without a COVID-19 diagnosis and compared it to pre-pandemic numbers.

The report found that overall maternal mortality increased by 33% since the start of the pandemic. These changes may be due to conditions directly related to COVID-19, such as respiratory infections, or from indirect factors experienced by an overburdened health care system.

Hispanic women had nine more deaths per 100,000 births, a 74% increase from the years before the pandemic. Non-Hispanic Black women had 16.8 more deaths per 100,000 births, a 40% increase from previous numbers.

White women, however, had only 2.9 more deaths per 100,000 births, a change of 17%.

The findings of this study reinforce prior research showing how racial and ethnic minorities have felt the inequalities in health care since the beginning of the pandemic.

"We know that access to proper prenatal care continues to affect Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women. This sheds more light on the current situation in our communities," Moritz said, who was not involved in the study.

Access to care, medical mistrust and systemic discrimination are just a few of the inequities that contribute to more COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths among racial and ethnic minorities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Changes need to be made, otherwise the next pandemic we get, the numbers will be similar," Moritz said.

 

[256bits]

I get a 40% increase in maternal deaths, if my table is correct.
( where does their 33% increase come from? )
Do the given statistics in the article tell the whole story?

Note that for Hispanic and white women, the number of deaths is similar quantitatively during/post the pandemic, even though the percentage increases were the same. It would appear that white women were suffering more deaths pre-pandemic per 100000 births than Hispanic. Black women seem to suffer more deaths at a rate 3-4 times the rate of the other 2 groups both pre and during/post pandemic.

Are they basing their study on total 100000 births of all 3 groups?
Or 100000 births of each group separately - ie

 

[Phil Core]

I find the article cited to border on propaganda.

The use of percentages is a form of sensationalism.

1. Hispanic women had nine more deaths per 100,000 births, a 74% increase
2. White women, however, had only 2.9 more deaths per 100,000 births, a change of 17%.

One sees 74% increase vs 17 % increase and yet the actual numbers are not that different 9 vs 2.9 per 100,000.

The use of "only" is an interjected bias - White women, however, had "only" 2.9 more deaths per 100,000 births, a change of 17%.

I also object to - "The findings of this study reinforce prior research showing how racial and ethnic minorities have felt the inequalities in health care since the beginning of the pandemic."

I do not find 2.9 vs 9 vs 16.8 per 100,000 to be that different. It certainly would have been of some interest if some examples where given for what these inequalities were.

I attribute the wording of this article to funding bias.

 

[pinball1970]

I find the article cited to border on propaganda.

The use of percentages is a form of sensationalism.

1. Hispanic women had nine more deaths per 100,000 births, a 74% increase
2. White women, however, had only 2.9 more deaths per 100,000 births, a change of 17%.

One sees 74% increase vs 17 % increase and yet the actual numbers are not that different 9 vs 2.9 per 100,000.

The use of "only" is an interjected bias - White women, however, had "only" 2.9 more deaths per 100,000 births, a change of 17%.

I also object to - "The findings of this study reinforce prior research showing how racial and ethnic minorities have felt the inequalities in health care since the beginning of the pandemic."

I do not find 2.9 vs 9 vs 16.8 per 100,000 to be that different. It certainly would have been of some interest if some examples where given for what these inequalities were.

I attribute the wording of this article to funding bias.

In the UK there some significant differences in vaccine uptake in different ethnic groups. I posted a couple of times on this on one of the many Covid/vaccine threads last year.
The data was from PHE (now UKHSA) Technical briefings, all on line.
The deaths from vaccinated verses unvaccinated was also published every few weeks and not surprisingly the unvaccinated deaths were greater in every age group, just not by the same amount.
Some of the % gaps in ethnic group vaccine uptake verses white were as high as 45%.BBC news reports in April-July 2020 were already claiming deaths in non white groups were significantly higher.
Possible reasons were, poorer areas, extended families, closer communities (markets, mosques, churches, relations in same areas)
This was 6 months before vaccine hesitancy in these groups was also apparent and significantly higher.
So there would be a double whammy for those communities if social distancing and vaccine protection was reduced and deaths would be higher.
This was put out.



Some data

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...start-of-the-vaccination-programme-in-england

 

[russ_watters]

I do not find 2.9 vs 9 vs 16.8 per 100,000 to be that different. It certainly would have been of some interest if some examples where given for what these inequalities were.

All small numbers are close together? C'mon. You do realize the entire point of making them rates per 100k is to make the numbers small and easy to interpret, right? I mean, let's make them rates per 10k - then they're reeeally close together!

Percentages are the proper way to compare/analyze changes.

 

[Astronuc]

US maternal mortality increased 33% during pandemic: Study​

What is the maternal age range? Something like 15 to 40?

Ars Technica has a stunning headline - COVID was the leading cause of death in Americans aged 45-54 in 2021
About 1 in 8 US deaths were from COVID-19 between March 2020 and October 2021.

COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in Americans between March 2020 and October 2021, accounting for one in every eight deaths.

In that time frame, COVID-19 ranked in the top five causes of death for every age group of people older than 15 years. Between January and October 2021, the pandemic disease was the leading cause of death among people 45 to 54 years old.

That's all according to a study of national death certificate data, published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

The study found COVID-19 caused roughly 700,000 deaths between March 2020 and October 2021. The pandemic disease trailed only heart disease and cancer, which caused roughly 2.15 million collectively in that time frame. The fourth and fifth deadliest afflictions in the US were accidental deaths—including car crashes, overdoses, and alcohol-related deaths—and stroke, which collectively caused around 624,000 deaths during that period.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2794043

In the 2020 period, COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death in people aged 85 and over, but, amid high vaccine uptake in this age group, it fell to the third leading cause of death from January to October 2021.

Younger adults saw the opposite trend. For those aged 45 to 54, COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in the 2020 period but jumped to the leading cause of death in 2021. Likewise, in those aged 35 to 44, COVID-19 jumped from the fifth leading cause of death in 2020 to the second leading cause in 2021. And for those aged 15 to 24 and 25 to 34, COVID-19 wasn't in the top five in 2020, but ranked as the fourth leading cause of death in both age groups in 2021.

 

[atyy]

Pregnant people were not included in the initial vaccine trials. As a result, vaccination was available early for pregnant people, but not "recommended" by the CDC until somewhat later. Pregnant people might understandably have had reservations about vaccination, because they didn't want to take a vaccine that may harm the unborn baby (they may not have been hesistant if they were not pregnant). And after vaccination was recommended, it may be there wasn't enough outreach to explain to them the urgency of vaccination.
https://www.path.org/articles/why-are-pregnant-people-left-out-vaccine-research/
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58014779