Differences in perinatal and infant mortality in high-income countries: artifacts of birth registration or evidence of true differences?

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.Variation in birth registration criteria may compromise international comparisons of fetal and infant mortality. We examined the effect of birth registration practices on fetal and infant mortality rates to determine whether observed differences in perinatal and infant mortality rates were artifacts of birth registration or reflected true differences in health status.A retrospective population-based cohort study was done using data from Canada, United States, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden from 1995-2005. Main outcome measures included live births by gestational age and birth weight; gestational age-and birth weight-specific stillbirth rates; neonatal, post-neonatal, and cause-specific infant mortality.Proportion of live births