SynthesisBMC pregnancy and childbirth2013
The effect of health facility delivery on neonatal mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 105 papers, 13 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
105 citing papers in PubMed, 13 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Male partner involvement in ANC to increase institutional delivery and postnatal care utilization in developing countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- Patient satisfaction and associated factors with inpatient health services at public hospitals in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2024Pooled it
- Turnover intention and its associated factors among nurses in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2024Pooled it
- Dental caries and associated factors in Ethiopia: systematic review and meta-analysis.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Outcomes by birth setting and caregiver for low risk women in Indonesia: a systematic literature review.Reproductive health · 2019Pooled it
- The impact of antenatal care on neonatal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- The effect of antenatal care on use of institutional delivery service and postnatal care in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2018Pooled it
- Delivery arrangements for health systems in low-income countries: an overview of systematic reviews.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Clinical trials registries are underused in the pregnancy and childbirth literature: a systematic review of the top 20 journals.BMC research notes · 2016Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of short birth interval on infant mortality in Ethiopia.PloS one · 2015Pooled it
- Maternal and perinatal mortality by place of delivery in sub-Saharan Africa: a meta-analysis of population-based cohort studies.BMC public health · 2014Pooled it
- A taxonomy and results from a comprehensive review of 28 maternal health voucher programmes.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2013Pooled it
- Nutritional, Socioeconomic, and Delivery Characteristics Are Associated with Neurodevelopment in Tanzanian Children.The Journal of pediatrics · 2019Trial
- HIV status disclosure, facility-based delivery and postpartum retention of mothers in a prevention clinical trial in rural Nigeria.International health · 2017Trial
- Predictors and survival of birth asphyxia-related neonatal mortality in rural Ghana: a five-year retrospective cohort study (2018-2023).BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Neonatal mortality following referral from peripheral facilities to Kanifing General Hospital, The Gambia (2022-2024): a survival analysis approach.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Determinants of Zero-Dose Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccination in Somaliland: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Disproportionate climate burden of rising temperatures on low birth weight in Pakistan.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Introducing and testing the maternal vulnerability segmentation tool (MVST) for essential health services use: demonstrating its use in Oromia, Ethiopia.BMJ global health · 2026Article
45 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThough promising progress has been made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal four through substantial reduction in under-five mortality, the decline in neonatal mortality remains stagnant, mainly in the middle and low-income countries. As an option, health facility delivery is assumed to reduce this problem significantly. However, the existing evidences show contradicting conclusions about this fact, particularly in areas where enabling environments are constraint. Thus, this review was conducted with the aim of determining the pooled effect of health facility delivery on neonatal mortality.
methodsThe reviewed studies were accessed through electronic web-based search strategy from PUBMED, Cochrane Library and Advanced Google Scholar by using combination key terms. The analysis was done by using STATA-11. I(2) test statistic was used to assess heterogeneity. Funnel plot, Begg's test and Egger's test were used to check for publication bias. Pooled effect size was determined in the form of relative risk in the random-effects model using DerSimonian and Laird's estimator.
resultsA total of 2,216 studies conducted on the review topic were identified. During screening, 37 studies found to be relevant for data abstraction. From these, only 19 studies fulfilled the preset criteria and included in the analysis. In 10 of the 19 studies included in the analysis, facility delivery had significant association with neonatal mortality; while in 9 studies the association was not significant. Based on the random effects model, the final pooled effect size in the form of relative risk was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.54, 0.87) for health facility delivery as compared to home delivery.
conclusionHealth facility delivery is found to reduce the risk of neonatal mortality by 29% in low and middle income countries. Expansion of health facilities, fulfilling the enabling environments and promoting their utilization during childbirth are essential in areas where home delivery is a common practice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.