Incidences and Sociodemographics of Specific Congenital Heart Diseases in the United States of America: An Evaluation of Hospital Discharge Diagnoses

Current estimates of the incidence of congenital heart disease (CHD) are derived from small clinical studies and metaanalyses. For the true incidence of CHD in the United States of America to be estimated, a single large representative population must be analyzed. All the data in this study were derived from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database. The study determined the overall and lesion-specific incidences of CHD diagnoses among all birth hospitalizations in 2008, stratified by race, gender, socioeconomic status, and hospital geographic location. The study identified 13,093 CHD diagnoses among 1,204,887 birth hospitalizations, yielding an incidence of 10.8 per 1,000, with a predominance of mild lesions and septal defects. Atrial septal defect (ASD) and pulmonic stenosis were more common among females, whereas aortic stenosis, coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and d-transposition of great arteries were more common among males. No racial difference was observed in the overall CHD incidence. However, isolated patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and ventricular septal defects (VSDs) were more common among Caucasians, whereas ASDs were more common among Hispanics. The incidences of CHD diagnoses were similar for all socioeconomic classes except the lowest socioeconomic class, which had a significantly lower CHD incidence. There was no geographic or seasonal variation in CHD incidence. This study demonstrated the incidence of echocardiographically confirmed CHD diagnosis to be 10.8 per 1,000 live births, marked by a high proportion of mild cardiac lesions and isolated PDAs. The high incidence of isolated PDAs in this study may be explained by the inclusion of only CHD diagnoses during birth hospitalization.