TY - JOUR
T1 - Quality of Maternal Death Documentation in Afghanistan
T2 - A Retrospective Health Facility Record Review
AU - Maruf, Farzana
AU - Tappis, Hannah
AU - Stekelenburg, Jelle
AU - van den Akker, Thomas
N1 - Copyright © 2021 Maruf, Tappis, Stekelenburg and van den Akker.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Objectives: To assess the quality of health facility documentation related to maternal deaths at health facilities in Afghanistan.Methods: Analysis of a subset of findings from the 2016 National Maternal and Newborn Health Quality of Care Assessment in Afghanistan. At each facility, maternity registers were reviewed to obtain data related to maternity caseload, and number and causes of maternal deaths in the year preceding the survey. Detailed chart reviews were conducted for up to three maternal deaths per facility. Analyses included completeness of charts, quality of documentation, and cause of death using WHO application of International Statistical Classification of Disease to deaths during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium.Key findings: Only 129/226 (57%) of facilities had mortality registers available for review on the day of assessment and 41/226 (18%) had charts documenting maternal deaths during the previous year. We reviewed 68 maternal death cases from the 41 facilities. Cause of death was not recorded in nearly half of maternal death cases reviewed. Information regarding mode of birth was missing in over half of the charts, and one third did not capture gestational age at time of death. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and obstetric hemorrhage were the most common direct causes of death, followed by maternal sepsis and unanticipated complications of clinical management including anesthesia-related complications. Documented indirect causes of maternal deaths were anemia, cardiac arrest, kidney and hepatic failure. Charts revealed at least eight maternal deaths from indirect causes that were not captured in register books, indicating omission or misclassification of registered deaths.Conclusion: Considerable gaps in quality of recordkeeping exist in Afghanistan, including underreporting, misclassification and incompleteness. This hampers efforts to improve quality of maternal and newborn health data and priority setting.
AB - Objectives: To assess the quality of health facility documentation related to maternal deaths at health facilities in Afghanistan.Methods: Analysis of a subset of findings from the 2016 National Maternal and Newborn Health Quality of Care Assessment in Afghanistan. At each facility, maternity registers were reviewed to obtain data related to maternity caseload, and number and causes of maternal deaths in the year preceding the survey. Detailed chart reviews were conducted for up to three maternal deaths per facility. Analyses included completeness of charts, quality of documentation, and cause of death using WHO application of International Statistical Classification of Disease to deaths during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium.Key findings: Only 129/226 (57%) of facilities had mortality registers available for review on the day of assessment and 41/226 (18%) had charts documenting maternal deaths during the previous year. We reviewed 68 maternal death cases from the 41 facilities. Cause of death was not recorded in nearly half of maternal death cases reviewed. Information regarding mode of birth was missing in over half of the charts, and one third did not capture gestational age at time of death. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and obstetric hemorrhage were the most common direct causes of death, followed by maternal sepsis and unanticipated complications of clinical management including anesthesia-related complications. Documented indirect causes of maternal deaths were anemia, cardiac arrest, kidney and hepatic failure. Charts revealed at least eight maternal deaths from indirect causes that were not captured in register books, indicating omission or misclassification of registered deaths.Conclusion: Considerable gaps in quality of recordkeeping exist in Afghanistan, including underreporting, misclassification and incompleteness. This hampers efforts to improve quality of maternal and newborn health data and priority setting.
U2 - 10.3389/fgwh.2021.610578
DO - 10.3389/fgwh.2021.610578
M3 - Article
C2 - 34816182
SN - 2673-5059
VL - 2
JO - Frontiers in global women's health
JF - Frontiers in global women's health
M1 - 610578
ER -