[Skip to Content]

Claim CME

Public Health

All-Cause Maternal Mortality in the US Before vs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Educational Objective
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article

1 Credit CME

JAMA Network Open

Published Online: June 28, 2022

Research Letter

Article Information and Disclosures

Marie E. Thoma, PhD¹;

Eugene R. Declercq, PhD²

Author Affiliations

¹Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park
²Department of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

Read article on JAMA Network

Read Article Claim CME

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported an 18.4% increase in US maternal mortality (ie, death during pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy) between 2019 and 2020. The relative increase was 44.4% among Hispanic, 25.7% among non-Hispanic Black, and 6.1% among non-Hispanic White women.¹ Given a 16.8% increase in overall US mortality in 2020, largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic,² we examined the pandemic’s role in 2020 maternal death rates.

Claim CME

Sign in to take quiz and track your certificates

Buy This Activity

Article Information

Accepted for Publication: March 26, 2022.

Published: June 28, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.19133

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2022 Thoma ME et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Marie E. Thoma, PhD, Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, 4200 Valley Dr, Family Science Ste 1142, College Park, MD 20742 (mthoma@umd.edu).

Author Contributions: Dr Thoma had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: All authors.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Thoma.

Drafting of the manuscript: Thoma.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All authors.

Statistical analysis: Thoma.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

References

Hoyert DL . Maternal mortality rates in the United States, 2020. Health E-Stat. February 23, 2022. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2020/E-stat-Maternal-Mortality-Rates-2022.pdf

Murphy SL , Kochanek KD , Xu J , Arias E . Mortality in the United States, 2020. NCHS Data Brief. 2021;(427):1-8.PubMed Google Scholar

Hoyert DL , Miniño AM . Maternal mortality in the United States: changes in coding, publication, and data release, 2018. Natl Vital Stat Rep. 2020;69(2):1-18.PubMed Google Scholar

Woolf SH , Chapman DA , Sabo RT , Zimmerman EB . Excess deaths from COVID-19 and other causes in the US, March 1, 2020, to January 2, 2021. JAMA. 2021;325(17):1786. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.5199 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Pérez-López FR , Savirón-Cornudella R , Chedraui P , et al. Obstetric and perinatal outcomes of pregnancies with COVID 19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. Published online March 13, 2022. doi:10.1080/14767058.2022.2051008 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

MacDorman MF , Thoma M , Declercq E . Improving US maternal mortality reporting by analyzing literal text on death certificates, United States, 2016-2017. PLoS One. 2020;15(10):e0240701. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0240701 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

AMA CME Accreditation Information

Credit Designation Statement: The American Medical Association designates this Journal-based CME activity activity for a maximum of 1.00  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to:

1.00 Medical Knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;;
1.00 Self-Assessment points in the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery’s (ABOHNS) Continuing Certification program;
1.00 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;
1.00 Lifelong Learning points in the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) Continuing Certification program; and
1.00 CME points in the American Board of Surgery’s (ABS) Continuing Certification program

It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting MOC credit.