The burden of maternal morbidity in Sweden in 1990-2020, including for different socioeconomic groups, and its impacts on women´s future health, working life and well-being

The overall burden of maternal morbidity in Sweden or elsewhere remains largely unknown.

Maternal morbidity also impacts women´s future health but research has not been comprehensive nor examined broader well-being outcomes.

We estimate trends and distribution of maternal morbidity in Sweden in 1990-2020, and analyze its impacts on women´s future health, working life, and well-being.We apply the new WHO definition of maternal morbidity to the Swedish Burden of Disease database linking national health and welfare registries for 1990-2020.

We estimate trends and distribution of maternal morbidity using standard methods and apply Cox proportional hazard models to quantify its effects on health and well-being over a 30-year period.This 4-year project embeds a post-doctoral researcher in the Swedish Burden of Disease study.

Participating researchers link Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet Departments of Women´s and Children´s Health, KI Global Public Health, and Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the Unversity of Washington.We provide new evidence of the maternal morbidity burden in Sweden to monitor gender-equal health goals, while impacts on future health and well-being could inform broader gender equality goals.

Findings directly inform global burden of disease estimates and WHO´s maternal morbidity work.

Within Sweden, results help address recent recommendations to improve maternity care by focusing on equity and patient outcomes with a holistic view.