Table 1.

Summary of selected studies.

Author [Ref.] Year Country	Study Design	Pregnancy Outcome (N)	Factors Associated with Perinatal Mortality	Study Limitations	Quality Assessment Score
Ahmed et al. [17] 2006 India	Cross-sectional study	2199	Domestic violence, first birth, lack of maternal education, poor socioeconomic status.	Underreporting of violence because of the involvement of perpetrators for obtaining data, no direct question to justify if the violence occurred during pregnancy, and underreport of pregnancy and death due to a retrospective study.	7/14 (Fair)
Bari et al. [29] 2002 Bangladesh	Cohort study	965	Five or more pregnancy prior to index pregnancy, assisted delivery, poor economic status, anemia prevalence.	All study variables used in the analysis are not defined.	10/14 (Good)
Guidotti et al. [30] 2009 Afghanistan	Cross-sectional study	53,524	Mode of delivery, medical risk factors.	Data were obtained from hospital records that are not primarily designed for research purpose; and this has limited study findings for the adjustment of other important confounding factors.	4/14 (Poor)
Iqbal et al. [31] 2014 Pakistan	Cohort study	11,260	Antepartum hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders, mechanical problems, congenital anomalies, neonatal problems, maternal medical problems.	Small sample size.	2/14 (Poor)
Khan et al. [19] 2017 Bangladesh	Cross-sectional study	6584	Maternal overweight and obesity.	Pregnancy outcomes reported in this study are based on based on maternal recall in five years preceding the survey that may inaccurately capture the total number of perinatal death.	7/14 (Fair)
Perveen et al. [23] 2016 Pakistan	Cohort study	234	Sideropaenic anemia.	Small sample size, hospital-based study and it has the limitation of generalization of the finding into wider community level.	5/14 (Fair)
Sachar et al. [32] 2000 India	Case-control study	2424	Lower maternal weight and height, BMI, literacy, pregnancy interval, prematurity, home delivery.	The study is based on rural setting, and findings from this study cannot be generalized to make a programmatic response to urban women. The risk variables used in the study are poorly defined.	6/12 (Fair)
Shabbir et al. [33] 2014 Pakistan	Cohort study	2010	Multiparous, advanced maternal age.	Limitation of ascertainment bias.	7/14 (Fair)
Shah et al. [18] 2000 India	Case-control study	10,715	Antenatal care, socioeconomic status, maternal education, tobacco consumption, parity, history of abortion, history of stillbirth, history of neonatal death, history of infant death, pregnancy spacing, maternal medical problems, obstetric problems, weeks of gestation, birth weight, type of labor, rupture of membranes, type of presentation, mode of delivery, anesthesia, intrapartum medical problems, Apgar score, state of amniotic fluid, resuscitation of the newborn, placenta and cord abnormalities, congenital defects.	Data collection was not regionally homogeneous limiting to apply study findings across the country.	9/12 (Fair)
Siddalingappa et al. [34] 2013 India	Cross-sectional study	314	The intrapartum complication, intrauterine complication, small gestational size at birth, the time taken for a first cry, multiple pregnancies.	Limited sample size, limited scope for generalization.	5/14 (Fair)
Wassan et al. [35] 2009 Pakistan	Cohort study	2778	Antenatal care, birth weight, gestational age, fetal causes, types of residence, maternal risk factors.	Hospital-based study and the study lacks generalizability of findings to a wider population. The study has lacked statistical measure to examine factors associate with perinatal mortality.	4/14 (Poor)
Kusiako et al. [16] 2000 Bangladesh	Cross-sectional study	3865	Maternal age, poor obstetric history, antenatal nutritional marker, signs and symptoms of pregnancy, length of gestation, complications during labor.	As the data was collected by midwives, and lack of verbal autopsy may increase classification bias for perinatal mortality.	6/14 (Fair)
Khanam et al. [36] 2017 Bangladesh	Cross-sectional study	6285	Antepartum hemorrhage, pregnancy-induced hypertension, probable infection.	The use of cross-sectional data lacks establishment of a temporal relationship between pregnancy complication and perinatal mortality. Selective recall bias as mothers who experienced perinatal deaths were more likely to recall antepartum complications compared with those who did not experience a complication.	8/14 (Fair)
Short et al. [37] 2018 India and Pakistan	Cohort study	41,778	Obesity and overweight during pregnancy.	The findings are limited to reflect the whole of the cohort as almost 60% women who measured their weight after 12 weeks of pregnancy were excluded from the analysis.	8/14 (Fair)