The Economic Burden of Maternal Death in Jordan From 2018 to 2021: Social and Geographic Variations

Maternal mortality has been one of the most profound challenges affecting countries worldwide. To monitor maternal death, Jordan has established a surveillance system named Jordan Maternal Mortality Surveillance and Response System (JMMSR). This study aims to estimate the economic burden of maternal deaths in Jordan and examine its social and geographic variations.

This study used data from JMMSR and applied a cost-of-illness approach to estimate the economic burden of maternal death in Jordan. The length of stay and characteristics of the deceased pregnant women and survival of fetuses were obtained from JMMSR, whereas the unit cost data were obtained from the literature. The indirect cost due to productivity loss was estimated using the value of statistical life.

The non-COVID-19 maternal mortality rate was 29.8, 32.4, 30.0, and 29.8 per 100 000 live births in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively. The overall burden was between JOD 43.74 (US dollars $61.60) and JOD 51.03 (US dollars $71.87) million per year, accounting for an average of 1.95% of annual current health expenditure and 4.89% of public health expenditure. However, there was a wide variation of economic burden across different age groups, governorates, education status, and nationality of deceased pregnant women.

Despite a relatively low maternal mortality rate in Jordan, the economic burden triggered by maternal death remains high. Developing targeted approaches to address specific health needs for identified vulnerable populations is needed to further reduce the economic burden due to maternal death.