Global prevalence of congenital heart disease in school-age children: a meta-analysis and systematic review.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the commonest birth defect. Studies estimating the prevalence of CHD in school-age children could therefore contribute to quantifying unmet health needs for diagnosis and treatment, particularly in lower-income countries. Data at school age are considerably sparser, and individual studies have generally been of small size. We conducted a literature-based meta-analysis to investigate global trends over a 40-year period.

Methods and results

Studies reporting on CHD prevalence in school-age children (4-18 years old) from 1970 to 2017 were identified from PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Google Scholar. According to the inclusion criteria, 42 studies including 2,638,475 children, reporting the prevalence of unrepaired CHDs (both pre

SUBMITTER: Liu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7678306 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature