Perinatal mortality and related conditions in the Republic of Serbia in the period from 2018-2022

Abstract

The perinatal mortality rate, which includes stillbirths and live-born children who died within the first seven days of life, is a sensitive indicator of the state of the healthcare system and the social measures available for the protection of mothers and newborns. Objective of this research was to assess the perinatal mortality rate in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2018-2022 and to identify the most common conditions associated with perinatal mortality, i.e., foetal and early neonatal mortality. The incidence of stillbirth was significantly higher after 28th gestation week, compared to early neonatal mortality (63.86% vs. 36.14%). In both early neonatal mortality and stillbirth after 28 weeks of gestation, deaths were statistically significantly more common in males (58.4% and 53.2%). In the early neonatal period, of the total number of newborns who died within seven days after birth, the highest percentage of deaths (41.5%) occurred on day zero after birth. Leading causes of death of newborns in the early neonatal period were from the group XVI of conditions originating in the perinatal period (P00-P99), covering 86.0%. Pathological conditions after birth were registered in 48.2% of the stillborn babies. These were diagnoses from group XVI of diseases -Conditions originating in the perinatal period (P00-P96) that accounted for 95.9% of the conditions and group XVII of conditions -Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (Q00-Q99) that accounted for 4.1%; however, the share of diagnoses from the XVI disease group is significantly higher than that of the XVII disease group. Results indicate the need for more extensive national research and revision of the Birth Registration and Death Certificate databases, to obtain more relevant and comprehensive data on factors that may be associated with stillbirths and infant deaths in the first days of life.