Demographic and Health Surveys Methodology - Measure DHS

CalculationA. Component death probabilities are first tabulated. Then the component death probabilities arecombined into the mortality rates. The component death probabilities are calculated for agesegments 0, 1–2, 3–5, 6–11, 12–23, 24–35, 36–47, and 48–59 months of completed age.B. Each component death probability is defined by a time period and an age interval. Within thesetwo parameters, three birth cohorts of children are included, as indicated in the figure below.Agea ua lA B Ct lt uC. One cohort of children is completely included and two are partially included. If the upper andlower limits of the age interval are given by a l and a u , respectively, and the upper and lower limitsof the time period are given by t u and t l , respectively, then the three cohorts are defined aschildren born between dates t l – a u and t l – a l (cohort A), t l – a l and t u – a u (cohort B) and t u – a u andt u – a l (cohort C).D. Cohorts A and C are only partially exposed to mortality between ages a l and a u during time periodt l to t u . Therefore, account needs to be taken of the partial exposure. Because of the small ageintervals of the component probabilities, the assumption is made that the exposure to mortalityand deaths of birth cohorts A and C are well represented by taking one-half of the total exposureand one-half of the deaths (with the exception noted below).E. Numerators: The sum of one-half of the deaths between ages a l and a u to children of cohort A,plus all of deaths between ages a l and a u to children of cohort B, plus one-half of the deathsbetween ages a l and a u to children of cohort C.F. Denominators: The sum of one-half of the survivors at age a l of children of cohort A, plus all ofthe survivors at age a l of children of cohort B, plus one-half of the survivors at age a l of childrenof cohort C.G. Component death probabilities are calculated by dividing the numerator for each age range andtime period by the denominator for that range and period.H. Special exception: For the time period that ends with the date of the survey, numerators arecalculated as the sum of one-half of the deaths between ages a l and a u to children of cohort A,plus all of deaths between ages a l and a u to children of cohort B, plus all of the deaths betweenages a l and a u to children of cohort C. This change is because all of the deaths reported in thesurvey for cohort C for this time period represent one-half of the deaths that will have occurred tothe cohort between ages a l and a u .Guide to DHS Statistics 93 Updated September 2006