Peking University, Sept. 26: The research paper named “China's facility-based birth strategy and neonatal mortality: a population-based epidemiological study”, a joint effort of scholars from PKU School of Public Health, UNICEF China, National Office for Maternal and Child Health Surveillance of China, Ministry of Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was published on The Lancet online on September 16th, the world's leading general medical journal.

Led by PKU Feng Xinglin, Ph.D. of Department of Health Policy and Administration, PKU School of Public Health, researchers conducted a population-based epidemiological study of China's National Maternal and Child Mortality Surveillance System.

Researchers analyzed the mortality of 1.5 million neonates in China from 1996 to 2008 based on the data from China's National Maternal and Child Mortality Surveillance System and found the neonatal mortality in China decreased over 50% in 12 years, the rate of neonatal mortality was much lower for hospital births than for home births, with relative risks ranging from 0.30 to 0.52, and the proportion of neonatal deaths prevented by hospital birth ranged from 70% to 48%. The finding indicates China’s substantial success in reducing neonatal mortality by facility-based strategy. The major effect of China's facility-based strategy on neonatal mortality is much greater than that reported for community-based interventions.

Further study found that even with hospital birth, there still existed relatively huge regional differences in the neonatal mortality. Babies born in urban hospitals had a low rate of neonatal mortality (5.7 per 1000 livebirths); but those born in hospitals in type 4 rural counties were almost four times more likely to die than were children born in urban hospitals. The finding shows although China's facility-based strategy has succeeded, facility-based intrapartum care in some least developed areas remains to be improved. And the research will provide a great impetus for countries to increase demand for and quality of facility-based intrapartum care.

Addtional Information:

Besides this most recent publication, Prof. Guo Yan also published a paper “Causes of deaths in children younger than 5 years in China in 2008” on The Lancet (Vol 375, No. 9720) in 2010 as a corresponding author. Doctor Feng Xinglin and Prof. Guo Yan published a paper “Socioeconomic inequalities in hospital births in China between 1988 and 2008” on Bulletin of the World Health Organization recently.

Extended Readings:
The Lancet

Written by: Xu Xinyi
Edited by: Li Xiaomeng 
Source: PKU News (Chinese)