Economic burden of adverse perinatal outcomes from births to age 5 years in high-income settings: a protocol for a systematic review

Background Adverse perinatal outcomes such as preterm, small for gestational age, low birth weight, congenital anomalies, stillbirth and neonatal death have devastating impacts on individuals, families and societies, with significant lifelong health implications. Despite extensive knowledge of the significant and lifelong health implications of adverse perinatal outcomes, information on the economic burden is limited. Estimating this burden will be crucial for designing cost-effective interventions to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality. Thus, we will quantify the economic burden of adverse perinatal outcomes from births to age 5 years in high-income countries.Methods and analysis A systematic review of all primary studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals on the economic burden for at least one of the adverse perinatal outcomes in high-income countries from 2010 will be searched in databases-MEDLINE (Ovid), EconLit, CINAHL (EBSCO), Embase (Ovid) and Global Health (Ovid). We will also search using Google Scholar and snowballing of the references list of included articles. The search terms will include three main concepts-costs, adverse perinatal outcome(s) and settings. We will use the Consolidated Health Economics Evaluation Reporting Standards 2022 and 17 criteria from the critical appraisal of cost-of-illness studies to assess the quality of each study. We will report the findings based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses 2020 statement. Costs will be converted into a common currency (US dollar), and we will estimate the pooled cost and subgroup analysis will be done. The reference lists of included papers will be reviewed.Ethics and dissemination This systematic review will not involve human participants and requires no ethical approval. The results of this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.PROSPERO registration number CRD42023400215.