Admissions Due to Perinatal Respiratory and Cardiovascular Disorders in England

The aim of this study was to look into the rates of perinatal admissions for respiratory, cardiac, and cardiovascular diseases in England.

This ecological study was conducted in England. The Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database in England provided the study with the publicly accessible data. The data set for this study was considered between April 01, 2012 and April 01, 2020. The HES database contains information on patients' admissions to hospitals, notably for those hospitalised with perinatal cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. We used the chi-squared test to assess the difference between the hospital admission rates between 2012 and 2020.

An increase of 15.6% was observed in hospital admissions rate during the study period [from 10,940.37 (95% CI 10,865.99-11,014.75) in 2012 to 12,649.00 (95% CI 12,565.03-12,732.98) in 2020 per 100,000 people, p<0.05]. Intrauterine hypoxia, chest congestion and breathing-related respiratory distress of newborns, and other perinatal respiratory disorders accounted for 35.5%, 29.8%, and 21.3%, respectively. Males contributed for more than half of them (56.7%). The rate of hospital admission among males increased by 15.1% [from 12,227.79 (95% CI 12,118.83-12,336.74) in 2012 to 14,074.77 (95% CI 13,952.11-14,197.43) in 2020 per 100,000 persons, p<0.05]. The rate of hospital admission among females increased by 17.4% [from 9,646.15 (95% CI 9,545.31-9,747.00) in 2012 to 11,324.20 (95% CI 11,209.47-11,438.92) in 2020 per 100,000 persons, p<0.05].

The study's findings show that the most common causes of hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular disorders were intrauterine hypoxia, neonatal respiratory distress, and other perinatal respiratory issues, which were detected particularly during the perinatal period. Further research is warranted to identify risk factors of hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular disorders during the perinatal period.