Characteristics of Households - Childinfo.org

IV CHILD MORTALITYOne of the overarching Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) is the reduction of infant and under-five mortality.Specifically, the MDGs call for a reduction in under-fivemortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. Monitoringprogress towards this goal is an important but difficultobjective. Measuring childhood mortality may seem easy,but attempts that use direct questions, such as “Has anyonein this household died in the last year?” usually yieldinaccurate results. Directly measuring child mortality frombirth histories is time consuming, expensive, and requiresgreater attention to training and supervision. Alternatively,indirect methods developed to measure child mortalitycan produce robust estimates that are comparable withthe ones obtained from other sources. Indirect methodsalso minimize the pitfalls of memory lapses, inexact ormisinterpreted definitions, and poor interviewing technique.The infant mortality rate is the probability of dying before thefirst birthday. The under-five mortality rate is the probabilityof dying before the fifth birthday. In MICS surveys, infantand under five mortality rates are usually calculated basedon an indirect estimation technique known as the Brassmethod 8 . The data used in the estimation are: the meannumber of total children born for five year-age groups ofwomen from age 15 to 49, and the proportion of these childrenwho are dead, also for five-year age groups of women (TableCM.1R). The technique converts the proportion of deadchildren among women in each age group into probabilitiesof dying by taking into account the approximate length ofexposure of children to the risk of dying, assuming a particularmodel age pattern of mortality. Based on previous informationon mortality in Roma settlements in Serbia, the East modellife table was selected as most appropriate.Table CM.1R: Children ever born, children surviving and proportion dead, Roma Settlements, 2010Mean and total numbers of children ever born, children surviving and proportion dead by age of womenChildren ever bornChildren survivingMean Total Mean TotalProportion dead Number of womenAge15–19 .432 185 .426 183 .012 42920–24 1.587 561 1.575 557 .008 35425–29 2.378 863 2.349 853 .012 36330–34 2.766 886 2.716 870 .018 32035–39 3.036 761 2.969 744 .022 25140–44 3.104 600 2.986 577 .038 19345–49 2.774 578 2.583 538 .069 208Total 2.094 4434 2.040 4322 .025 21188United Nations. 1983. Manual X: Indirect Techniques for Demographic Estimation (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.83.XIII.2);United Nations. 1990a. QFIVE — United Nations Program for Child Mortality Estimation;United Nations. 1990b. Step-by-step Guide to the Estimation of Child Mortality.MONITORING THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN 47