Only 22% girl parents opt for heart surgery to save daughter's life: Study

Girls get a raw deal even with a heart ache. A scientific study had revealed that even a serious condition like congenital heart disease (CHD) doesn’t move the parents, who prefer to go all out do everything to save their sons born with a heart problem but not their daughters. Parents of only 22% girls opt for corrective surgery in case of CHD compared to 70% boys.

In India, approximately 1,80,000 children are born with CHD each year, of whom 60,000-90,000 require early intervention. But the health experts feel that girls with cardiac defects may not receive equitable care in India because of the gender bias against the girl child.

Corrective surgery for congenital heart disease is life-saving, but its utilisation depends upon several social and economic factors. The study by the cardiologists of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) found girls with cardiac defects may not be receiving equitable care in India.

In a first prospective study of its kind, published in the British medical journal Heart, the AIIMS doctors tried to evaluate the presence and magnitude of gender bias among children needing heart surgery during childhood. During the study of 405 children up to 12 years who had been advised to undergo paediatric cardiac surgery were studied and their parents were interviewed. It was found that significant gender bias existed in the acceptance of heart surgery among children.

Of the 405 child patients studied, 44% (59/134) of girls had undergone surgery at 1 year compared with 70% (189/271) of boys. The reasons included female gender bias, lower socioeconomic classes, higher cost of surgery, apprehensions about future matrimonial prospects of girls and lack of social support emerged as the major factors responsible for delays in undergoing surgery. Scar on the chest after surgery too was a reason for concern for parents as many felt it may cause problems in the matrimonial life of the girls.

“In AIIMS we noticed that there was one girl patient for every two boy patient even thought the CHD is common among both sexes. This prompted us to conduct a scientific study. We found that it was the behavioural reasons and attitudes towards girls and not social economic factors for discrimination,” said Dr S Ramakrishnan, the main author of the study, told DNA.