Demographic and Health Surveys Methodology - Measure DHS

MORTALITY RATE CALCULATIONNeonatal mortality rate is the component death probability for 0 months of age multiplied by 1000.A. Infant mortality rate:1. Calculate the component survival probability by subtracting the component death probabilityfrom one.2. Calculate the product of the component survival probabilities for 0, 1–2, 3–5, and 6–11 months of age.3. Subtract the product from 1 and multiply by 1000 to get the infant mortality rate. Postneonatal mortality rate: Subtract the neonatal mortality rate from the infant mortality rate.B. Child mortality rate:1. Calculate the component survival probability by subtracting the component death probabilityfrom 1.2. Calculate the product of the component survival probabilities for 12–23, 24–35, 36–47, and48–59 months of age.3. Subtract the product from 1 and multiply by 1000 to get the child mortality rate.C. Under-five mortality rate:1. Calculate the component survival probability by subtracting the component death probabilityfrom 1.2. Calculate the product of the component survival probabilities for 0, 1–2, 3–5, and 6–11, 12–23, 24–35, 36–47, and 48–59 months of age.3. Subtract the product from 1 and multiply by 1,000 to get the child mortality rate.Handling of Missing ValuesFour variables are used in the calculation of infant and child mortality: date of interview, date of birth ofthe child, survival of the child, and age at death of the child. The date of interview is not allowed to bemissing on the questionnaire. Survival status for children is not allowed to be missing. If missing orunknown, the date of birth and age at death are imputed before the creation of the standard recode. SeeCroft, 1999 for the imputation procedures.Notes and ConsiderationsTypically, mortality rates are calculated for five-year periods preceding the date of the survey. To providestability in estimates for smaller subgroups, the ten-year period before the survey is used. To calculate thecomponent death probabilities for the ten-year period, the numerators (deaths) for the 2 five-year periodsare summed, as are the denominators (survivors) before dividing the numerators by the denominators.Guide to DHS Statistics 94 Updated September 2006