title: The unborn and newborn child. II. Risk factors predicting perinatal morbidity and mortality in 4,138 infants.
abstract: In this study, antenatal risk factors (RF) predicting perinatal morbidity and mortality (PMM) were identified among 56 RFs defined by the Danish National Board of Health. The association with parity, age, social class, civil status, complicated delivery was also analysed. The RFs predicting complicated delivery have been described in Part I (1). All events, both prenatal and during the perinatal period, in 4,138 infants borne by 4,102 women in an entire Danish district were analysed. The frequency of perinatal mortality was 0.8% and of perinatal morbidity, 12.7%. The original 56 RFs affected 56% of the population. Fourteen 'new' RFs among the original 56 RFs predicted PMM and affected 27% of the population. The prepregnancy RFs affected 4.5% of all women with singleton pregnancies and their infants had a PMM rate of 21%; the pregnancy RFs affected 18.1%, the PMM rate being 25%; 3.4% had both prepregnancy and pregnancy RFs, their PMM rate was 41%. Twin pregnancies occurred in 0.9%, with a PMM rate of 47%. Apart from these groups, the PMM rate was only 8%. Parity, social class and civil status were of no significance for PMM. Some delivery complications, termed labor RFs, raised the odds of PMM by a factor of 1.92.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Holst
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Henningsen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hilden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008423:Maternal Age; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors