The prevalence of stillbirth due to antenatal complications (hypertension, diabetes, and anemia): A single center study in Malaysia

Abstract

Stillbirth is a serious problem globally with approximately 2.65 million third trimester stillborn baby cases recorded around the world each year. In Malaysia, there are very limited studies on the risks of stillbirth. So, the objective of the study was to investigate odds and probability of stillbirth due to antenatal complications (hypertension, diabetes and anemia) among women in Malaysia. A case-control study was undertaken in Hospital Serdang in Selangor. The sample size for the study is 367 patients who gave birth at this hospital of which 155 are cases and 212 are the controls. The data is collected from the year 2013 to 2015 based on the patient’s data in the manual book and database. Descriptive analysis is conducted to know the percentage of mothers with antenatal problems with birth of their babies. Chi-square Test of Independence and odds ratio was conducted to identify the association between antenatal complications and stillbirth. The results showed that most of the stillbirth’s mothers did not have any antenatal complication during pregnancy just 18.1% has hypertension, 18.7% has diabetes and 23.2% has anaemia. Mothers with babies born alive showed quite similar results with only 18.9% with diabetes and 25% with anaemia but a slight difference for hypertension with only 1.9%. The chi square tests of independence results concluded that only hypertension is associated with birth of baby.  Based on the odds ratio, a mother who has hypertension during pregnancy has 11.465 times higher odds (95 CI: 3.930 to 33.445) of getting a stillbirth baby compared to a mother without hypertension. Thus, pregnant women who have hypertension during pregnancy have a higher risk of getting stillbirth baby.