Race, Ethnicity, and Pediatric Postsurgical Mortality: Current Trends and Future Projections.

ABSTRACT:

Background

No study has contextualized the aggregate human costs attributable to disparities in pediatric postsurgical mortalities in the United States, a critical step needed to convey the scale of racial inequalities to clinicians, policymakers, and the public.

Methods

We conducted a population-based study of 673 677 children from US hospitals undergoing intermediate to high-risk surgery between 2000 and 2019. We estimated the excess deaths that could be avoided if Black and Hispanic children had comparable mortality rates to white children. We estimated the mortality reduction required to eliminate disparities within the next decade. We finally evaluated the impact of policy changes targeting a modest annual 2.5% reduction in disparity-attributable mortality.

Results</

SUBMITTER: Nafiu OO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11291965 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature