Predictive Analytics for Maternal Mortality in Bangladesh: An Interpretable ML Framework with Ensemble Methods
Article Information
Abstract
Maternal mortality in Bangladesh remains a critical public health challenge, with recent evidence indicating stagnation in mortality reduction despite expanded facility-based delivery and skilled birth attendance. Accurate identification of high-risk cases is essential to enable targeted intervention and resource allocation. This study develops an interpretable machine learning framework for maternal mortality prediction using the nationally representative Bangladesh Maternal Mortality Survey 2016 (BMMS-2016). A comprehensive data integration and feature engineering pipeline was implemented across demographic, socioeconomic, and maternal healthcare domains. Given the severe class imbalance inherent in maternal death outcomes, multiple resampling strategies---including Tomek Links undersampling, SMOTE, ADASYN, and CTGAN---were systematically evaluated in conjunction with diverse classifiers and ensemble methods. Among all configurations, Random Forest combined with SMOTE achieved the best overall performance (ROC-AUC: 0.9635; Accuracy: 0.9016; F1-score: 0.8928), demonstrating superior precision--recall balance suitable for rare-event prediction. Tree-based ensemble models consistently outperformed baseline classifiers. Model interpretability was ensured through SHAP analysis, revealing region type, maternal age, and administrative division as the most influential predictors and highlighting substantial geographic and demographic disparities. An interactive Tableau dashboard translates predictive insights into accessible visual analytics for policy and decision support. The findings underscore the importance of explicit imbalance handling and explainable artificial intelligence frameworks in maternal health risk modeling, offering a scalable and transparent approach for data-driven maternal mortality reduction strategies.
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Data Availability Statement
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
AI Use Statement
Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate
References
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Cite This Article
TY - JOUR AU - Mazumder, Partha Pratim AU - Hasan, Raza AU - Mahmood, Salman AU - Palaniappan, Sellappan PY - 2026 DA - 2026/04/02 TI - Predictive Analytics for Maternal Mortality in Bangladesh: An Interpretable ML Framework with Ensemble Methods JO - ICCK Transactions on Machine Intelligence T2 - ICCK Transactions on Machine Intelligence JF - ICCK Transactions on Machine Intelligence VL - 2 IS - 3 SP - 127 EP - 143 DO - 10.62762/TMI.2026.182317 UR - https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TMI.2026.182317 KW - maternal mortality prediction KW - interpretable machine learning KW - class imbalance techniques KW - SMOTE KW - ADASYN KW - CTGAN KW - Tomek Links KW - ensemble learning KW - Random Forest KW - SHAP explainability KW - healthcare risk modeling KW - public health analytics AB - Maternal mortality in Bangladesh remains a critical public health challenge, with recent evidence indicating stagnation in mortality reduction despite expanded facility-based delivery and skilled birth attendance. Accurate identification of high-risk cases is essential to enable targeted intervention and resource allocation. This study develops an interpretable machine learning framework for maternal mortality prediction using the nationally representative Bangladesh Maternal Mortality Survey 2016 (BMMS-2016). A comprehensive data integration and feature engineering pipeline was implemented across demographic, socioeconomic, and maternal healthcare domains. Given the severe class imbalance inherent in maternal death outcomes, multiple resampling strategies---including Tomek Links undersampling, SMOTE, ADASYN, and CTGAN---were systematically evaluated in conjunction with diverse classifiers and ensemble methods. Among all configurations, Random Forest combined with SMOTE achieved the best overall performance (ROC-AUC: 0.9635; Accuracy: 0.9016; F1-score: 0.8928), demonstrating superior precision--recall balance suitable for rare-event prediction. Tree-based ensemble models consistently outperformed baseline classifiers. Model interpretability was ensured through SHAP analysis, revealing region type, maternal age, and administrative division as the most influential predictors and highlighting substantial geographic and demographic disparities. An interactive Tableau dashboard translates predictive insights into accessible visual analytics for policy and decision support. The findings underscore the importance of explicit imbalance handling and explainable artificial intelligence frameworks in maternal health risk modeling, offering a scalable and transparent approach for data-driven maternal mortality reduction strategies. SN - 3068-7403 PB - Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge LA - English ER -
@article{Mazumder2026Predictive,
author = {Partha Pratim Mazumder and Raza Hasan and Salman Mahmood and Sellappan Palaniappan},
title = {Predictive Analytics for Maternal Mortality in Bangladesh: An Interpretable ML Framework with Ensemble Methods},
journal = {ICCK Transactions on Machine Intelligence},
year = {2026},
volume = {2},
number = {3},
pages = {127-143},
doi = {10.62762/TMI.2026.182317},
url = {https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TMI.2026.182317},
abstract = {Maternal mortality in Bangladesh remains a critical public health challenge, with recent evidence indicating stagnation in mortality reduction despite expanded facility-based delivery and skilled birth attendance. Accurate identification of high-risk cases is essential to enable targeted intervention and resource allocation. This study develops an interpretable machine learning framework for maternal mortality prediction using the nationally representative Bangladesh Maternal Mortality Survey 2016 (BMMS-2016). A comprehensive data integration and feature engineering pipeline was implemented across demographic, socioeconomic, and maternal healthcare domains. Given the severe class imbalance inherent in maternal death outcomes, multiple resampling strategies---including Tomek Links undersampling, SMOTE, ADASYN, and CTGAN---were systematically evaluated in conjunction with diverse classifiers and ensemble methods. Among all configurations, Random Forest combined with SMOTE achieved the best overall performance (ROC-AUC: 0.9635; Accuracy: 0.9016; F1-score: 0.8928), demonstrating superior precision--recall balance suitable for rare-event prediction. Tree-based ensemble models consistently outperformed baseline classifiers. Model interpretability was ensured through SHAP analysis, revealing region type, maternal age, and administrative division as the most influential predictors and highlighting substantial geographic and demographic disparities. An interactive Tableau dashboard translates predictive insights into accessible visual analytics for policy and decision support. The findings underscore the importance of explicit imbalance handling and explainable artificial intelligence frameworks in maternal health risk modeling, offering a scalable and transparent approach for data-driven maternal mortality reduction strategies.},
keywords = {maternal mortality prediction, interpretable machine learning, class imbalance techniques, SMOTE, ADASYN, CTGAN, Tomek Links, ensemble learning, Random Forest, SHAP explainability, healthcare risk modeling, public health analytics},
issn = {3068-7403},
publisher = {Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge}
}
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