Existing Heath Disparities in Congenital Heart Disease: The Path Forward to Achieving Health Equity. A scientific statement of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology of the ESC

Aparna Kulkarni; Eva Goossens; Kira Kuschnerus; Peter Kramer; Delphine De Smedt; Maria Simonenko; Johannes Nordmeyer; Monica Tiberi; Paul Kantor

doi:10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaf052

Existing Heath Disparities in Congenital Heart Disease: The Path Forward to Achieving Health Equity. A scientific statement of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology of the ESC

Eur Heart J Qual Care Clin Outcomes. 2025 Jun 25:qcaf052. doi: 10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaf052. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Aparna Kulkarni¹, Eva Goossens^{2

3

4}, Kira Kuschnerus^{5

6}, Peter Kramer^{6

7}, Delphine De Smedt⁸, Maria Simonenko⁹, Johannes Nordmeyer¹⁰, Monica Tiberi¹¹, Paul Kantor¹²

Affiliations

¹ Cohen Children's Medical Center, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New Hyde Park, NY, USA.
² Department of Nursing Science and Midwifery, Centre for Research and Innovation in Care (CRIC), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
³ Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
⁴ Department of Patient Care, Antwerp University Hospital (UZA), Antwerp, Belgium.
⁵ Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité (DHZC), Department of Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Berlin, Germany.
⁶ Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
⁷ Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité (DHZC), Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology, Berlin, Germany.
⁸ Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
⁹ V.A. Almazov National Medical Research Centre, High-tech Management of heart failure Research Department, Heart Transplantation Outpatient Department, St. Petersburg, Russia.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatric Cardilogy, Intensive Care and Pulmology, University Children's Hospital, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
¹¹ Department of Public Health, Azienda Sanitaria Unica Regionale Mache AV 1, Pesaro, Italy.
¹² Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.

PMID: 40561137
DOI: 10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaf052

Abstract

There is increasing recognition that social determinants of health affect outcomes in individuals with congenital heart disease and cause health disparities. This scientific statement from the European Association of Preventive Cardiology of the European Society of Cardiology provides an outline of the existing disparities from a global perspective in this population. We review the current knowledge on racial and ethnic patterns and the role of deprivation status, food insecurity, built environment, financial strain, psychological health and parental distress and education and literacy in creating inequities. Finally, we provide future directions for policy, research and clinical practice in achieving health equity in the congenital heart disease population.

Keywords: Heart defects; Social Determinants of Health; congenital.

© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.