The American Heart Association pledged $20 million towards research to better understand the disproportionate impact of maternal complications and death among Black women, Native American women and women who live in rural areas, the organization said March 4.
The initiative also seeks to better understand the link between pregnancy complications and cardiovascular health among women and their infants. .
"The Health Equity Research Network on Disparities in Maternal-Infant Health Outcomes is part of the multipronged approach of the American Heart Association’s unprecedented pledge to aggressively address social determinants of health while working to improve health equity for all communities” stated Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, president of the American Heart Association.
"We are committing more than $230 million over the next four years to support targeted initiatives and programs addressing health equity, while leading additional efforts to drive systemic public health change focused on improving the social determinants of health and tackling issues of health justice and structural racism head on," Dr. Lloyd-Jones stated.