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Health United Kingdom24. March 2022

Health Inequality No More: This App Lowers Baby Loss Risk Among Minorities

A newly-developed pregnancy screening tool has helped reduce baby loss among black, Asian, and ethnic minority women three-fold — bringing the risk down to the same level as their white women counterparts. 

The pregnancy tool, already in use in a few hospitals and maternity units in England, uses an algorithm to calculate one’s personal risk and is able to more accurately detect high-risk women and prevent complications in pregnancy, researchers explain. It is able to calculate a woman’s individual risk of pregnancy problems; a far cry from the current tick-the-box checklist which has been in place for around 70 years. 

“The digital tool provides a practical way to support women with personalized care during pregnancy and make informed decisions about birth” as well as “almost eliminate a large source of the healthcare inequality facing black, Asian, and minority ethnic pregnant women,” says Professor Basky Thilaganathan, who led the research team at St George’s Hospital. 

With ethnic minorities having a two to three times higher rate of stillbirth and perinatal death and black women having a 40% higher risk of miscarriage compared to white women, the new digital tool is proving to reduce health inequalities and promote healthy, full-term pregnancies among all ethnicities. A big win for science, mothers, equality, and healthy babies. 

Source:
BBC

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