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Article History

Received: 14 October 2024

Accepted: 6 May 2025

First Online: 22 May 2025

Declarations

:

: This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. All data accessed in the context of the present study had been previously collected as part of the routine data collection for epidemiological surveillance and national statistics. In accordance with article 9 of the Royal Decree of 14/07/1999 on yearly birth statistics, these data can be used for further research purposes. Therefore, our study was not submitted to a local ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB) because the need for ethical approval was deemed unnecessary according to national regulations. Following article 6, §1, (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation, no written informed consent from the patients is required for the collection and analysis of epidemiological data when the processing of data is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public (health) interest. No additional data was collected for the sole purpose of this study, and we used only non-identifiable pseudonymized data.Therefore, the need for consent to participate in this study was deemed unnecessary.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.