Risk factors and trends in the rate of stillbirth in Hungary between 1971 and 2010

Abstract

Objective: Possible risk factors and trends in the rate of stillbirth in Hungary between 1971 and 2010.

Methods: Annual data of fetal birth weight, fetal gender, maternal age and marital status of the mother categories were available for both live and stillborn cases and were analyzed using negative binomial regression. A p value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Male gender significantly increased risk of stillbirth (relative risk (RR):1.08; p < 0.001). The risk of stillbirth was also significantly associated with the maternal age (RR: 2.01 in the group older than 35 years, relative to younger mothers; p < 0.001), and the marital status (RR: 1.24 among the babies of an extramarital partnership; p < 0.001), this holding true for both fetal genders. However, a low birth weight ( < 2500 g) increased the risk of stillbirth more than 18-fold (RR: 18.47; p < 0.001) and there was a markedly higher risk of low birth weight in boys than in girls. Further, a strong negative correlation (r = −0.88) was detected between the real income per person of the overall population and the rate of stillbirth.

Conclusions: These findings support the known risk factors of stillbirth and gender-specific analyses given an estimation of the risk of stillbirth in both boys and girls.

• Gender-specific difference
• low birth weight
• marital status
• maternal age
• negative binomial regression
• sociodemographic factor