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. 2022 Dec;28(4):348-357.
doi: 10.4069/kjwhn.2022.12.23. Epub 2022 Dec 29.

Maternal, infant, and perinatal mortality statistics and trends in Korea between 2018 and 2020

Hyunkyung Choi  1 , Ju-Hee Nho  2 , Nari Yi  3 , Sanghee Park  3 , Bobae Kang  3 , Hyunjung Jang  4
Affiliations

Maternal, infant, and perinatal mortality statistics and trends in Korea between 2018 and 2020

Hyunkyung Choi et al. Korean J Women Health Nurs. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to identify maternal, infant, and perinatal mortality using the nationalpopulation data of South Korea between 2018 and 2020, and to analyze mortality rates according tocharacteristics such as age, date of death, and cause of death in each group. This study updates themost recent study using 2009 to 2017 data.

Methods: Analyses of maternal, infant, and perinatal mortality were done with data identifiedthrough the supplementary investigation system for cases of death from the Census of PopulationDynamics data provided by Statistics Korea from 2018 to 2020.

Results: Between 2018 and 2020, a total of 99 maternal deaths, 2,427 infant deaths, and 2,408 perinatal deaths were identified from 901,835 live births. The maternal mortality ratio was 11.3 deathsper 100,000 live births in 2018; it decreased to 9.9 in 2019 but increased again to 11.8 in 2020. Thematernal mortality ratio increased steeply in women over the age of 40 years. An increasing trend inthe maternal mortality ratio was found for complications related to the puerperium and hypertensive disorders. Both infant and perinatal mortality continued to decrease, from 2.8 deaths per 1,000live births in 2018 to 2.5 in 2020 and from 2.8 in 2018 to 2.5 in 2020, respectively.

Conclusion: Overall, the maternal, infant, and perinatal mortality statistics showed improvements.However, more attention should be paid to women over 40 years of age and specific causes of maternal deaths, which should be taken into account in Korea's maternal and child health policies.

Keywords: Infant mortality; Maternal mortality; Perinatal mortality; Republic of Korea; Cause of death.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

Ju-Hee Nho has been the associate editor of the Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing since 2021, and Hyunkyung Choi has been an editorial board member of the Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing since January 2022. They were not involved in the review process of this manuscript. Otherwise, there is no conflict of interest to declare.

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