Worldwide, there are about 23 million miscarriages a year, with Black women facing a significantly higher risk of pregnancy loss, according to research published April 26 in The Lancet.
Researchers from the U.K. evaluated nine cohort studies with data from more than 4.6 million pregnancies.
Overall, researchers observed a 15.3 percent rate of miscarriage, the equivalent of about 23 million. The risk was about 43 percent higher for Black women compared to white women, the analysis found.
The risk of pregnancy loss was lowest among women aged 20-29 at 12 percent, jumping to 65 percent among women aged 45 and older. Women with no miscarriage history also had a low risk at 11 percent, increaseing by 10 percent for each additional miscarriage.
The study did not outline specific reasons why the miscarriage risk is higher among Black women, but highlighted general risk factors such as older age, a high BMI, alchohol consumption, exposure to pollution and pesticides, among others.
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