Improving data collection and estimation methods for child and adult mortality

Three research papers and a perspective published in PLoS Medicine this week highlight the importance of gathering accurate information on numbers of deaths, and suggest ways of improving estimates in countries where complete vital registration systems do not exist. In the first paper, Julie Rajaratnam from the University of Washington, and colleagues from Harvard University and the University of Queensland, provide an overview of current systems of methods of estimating deaths where death registration is incomplete. In the two subsequent papers they lay out new methods for measuring mortality in children under 5 by taking summary birth history from mothers, and in young adults by collecting information from surviving siblings.

Read the whole article on Physorg

More from Physorg