[Causes of neonatal death in the community of Valencia (Spain)]

Objectives To describe the causes of neonatal mortality in the Community of Valencia (VC) and to compare two registration systems for causes of death: that of the Spanish Society of Neonatology and that of the Word Health Organization's "Statistical Bulletin of Deaths (SBD)".MethodsData related to death from the SSN's mortality form, which orders all the diagnoses according to their severity, and data from the SBD, which uses sequential criteria (basic, intermediate or immediate cause of death) were obtained. Both systems were joined in a single form. Data from 19 hospitals in the Community of Valencia (1998-99) were collected. Two features were compared: a) "single cause of death" meaning the first diagnosis of the SSN system versus the "basic cause" of the SBD; and b) "multidiagnosis", which compares all the diagnoses mentioned anywhere in either of the two systems.ResultsA total of 206 neonatal deaths were included. When using the "basic cause" criterion the most common causes of death were malformations (31 %), respiratory distress syndrome (20 %) and extreme prematurity (10 %). However, when applying the "first diagnosis" criterion, the most common causes were respiratory distress syndrome (34 %), malformations (33 %) and asphyxia (9 %). These differences were statistically significant. When the causes of death were compared using the "multidiagnosis" criterion the differences were greater.ConclusionsThe two systems differ qualitatively and quantitatively. The SSN form is useful for studying prevalent morbidity among deaths as well as other parameters, but it may fail to identify the causes of death. The SBD uses more explicit criteria for the causes of death. Thus, both systems should be complementary.