Parental,fetal, and environmental factors in perinatal mortality

The parental, fetal, and environmental factors associated with 279 perinatal deaths and 398 controls have been examined. From the data it is quite evident that socioeconomic factors are of primary importance in perinatal mortality.The difference in perinatal mortality between the white and non-white groups disappeared when adjusted for socioeconomic factors.The father's occupation and the mother's education showed significant differences in relation to perinatal mortality even when adjusted for race, age, and parity. The father's occupation and mother's education were considered as indices of the socioeconomic status of the family.The mother's age was found to be a highly significant factor in perinatal mortality even when adjusted for race, age, and parity.The technique used in obtaining the data for the present study did not yield reliable information in regard to the nutritional status of the mother.Birth interval, parity, previous obstetric complications, and previous perinatal mortality did not appear to be significant in relation to perinatal mortality when adjusted for race, age, and parity.No correlation was noted between the level of the maternal hemoglobin and perinatal mortality.Certain complications of pregnancy such as toxemia, premature separation of the placenta, placenta previa, and other antepartum bleeding were associated with extremely high perinatal mortality rates.In this study the type of delivery appeared to have no relationship to perinatal mortality when other variables were considered.