An analysis of data from the U.S. military suggests that the maternal morbidity disparities between Black and White women cannot be attributed solely to differences in access to care and socioeconomics.
Dr. Jameaka Hamilton
Even in the U.S. military health care system, where all service members have universal access to the same facilities and providers, researchers found substantial racial disparities in cesarean deliveries, maternal ICU admission, and overall severe maternal morbidity and mortality between Black patients and White patients, according to findings from a new study presented Jan. 28, 2021, at a meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
“This was surprising given some of the driving theories behind maternal race disparities encountered in this country, such as access to care and socioeconomic status, are controlled for in this health care system,” Capt. Jameaka Hamilton, MD, who presented the research, said in an interview. “Our findings indicate that there are likely additional factors at play which impact the obstetrical outcomes of women based upon their race, including systems-based barriers to accessing the military health care system which contribute to health care disparities, or in systemic or implicit biases which occur within our health care delivery.”
Plenty of recent research has documented the rise in maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States and the considerable racial disparities within those statistics. Black women are twice as likely to suffer morbidity and three to four times more likely to die in childbirth, compared with White women, Dr. Hamilton, an ob.gyn. from the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, reminded attendees. So far, much of this disparity has been attributed to social determinants of health.
Military retirees, active-duty personnel, and dependents, however, have equal access to federal health insurance and care at military health care facilities, or at covered civilian facilities where needed. Hence the researchers’ hypothesis that the military medical system would not show the same disparities by race that are seen in civilian populations.
The researchers analyzed maternal morbidity data from the Neonatal Perinatal Information Center from April 2018 to March 2019. The retrospective study included data from 13 military treatment facilities that had more than 1,000 deliveries per year. In addition to statistics on cesarean delivery and adult ICU admission, the researchers compared numbers on overall severe maternal morbidity based on the indicators defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 15,305 deliveries included 23% Black patients and 77% White patients from the Air Force, Army, and Navy branches.
The cesarean delivery rate ranged from 19.4% to 35.5%. ICU admissions totaled 38 women, 190 women had postpartum hemorrhage, and 282 women experienced severe maternal morbidity. All three measures revealed racial disparities:
- Overall severe maternal morbidity occurred in 2.66% of Black women and 1.66% of White women (P =.0001).
- ICU admission occurred in 0.49% of Black women and 0.18% of White women (P =.0026).
- 31.68% of Black women had a cesarean delivery, compared with 23.58% of White women (P <.0001).