Grant: Operating Grant: ECI grants in MRC&Y Health - Circulatory / Respiratory Health

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a type of heart problem that babies are born with. It is a major cause of babies' death in Canada. CHD can cause severe disability. Patients with CHD may require life time cardiac care. Previous studies have shown that the chance to have babies with CHD among poor families and certain minority groups is higher than that among rich families or other ethnic groups. However, results are vague and inconsistent. There are substantial limitations in previous studies, which make the results biased and difficult to interpret. In Canada, at least 50,000 children are born into poverty, and one in every 100 infants are born with CHD. Considering that Ontario consists of 39% of Canada's population and one third of Ontarians are visual minorities, health inequity would be a major concern in prenatal health if pregnant women from poor and vulnerable families or minority groups have an increased risk of CHD in offspring. Therefore, we plan to study if mothers from a minority group or who live in poor, less educated, or socially deprived neighbourhoods have an increased chance to have babies with CHD. We are going to link several big data sources, including the BORN Information System (BIS) birth registry data, the CIHI data, and the Census data collected by different organizations and equity index scores developed by experienced Canadian researchers. All databases are available. Therefore, no extra cost on data collection is needed. Findings from this study will help us better understand the causes of CHD and further develop strategies for the CHD prevention. The results of this study could have important recommendations for health policy to improve health inequity in Canada.