Demographic and Health Survey 2009-10 - Timor-Leste Ministry of ...

INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY 8
Infant and child mortality rates are the basic indicators of a country’s socioeconomic
development and quality of life as well as the specific measures of its health status. Measures of
childhood mortality have value in population projections and show the progress of health programs
and policies. Variations in mortality by demographic characteristics, such as sex and age, and by
socioeconomic characteristics, such as urban-rural residence, district, mother’s education, and
household wealth, serve to highlight those factors that most influence child survival. Analysis of
mortality measures helps identify promising directions for health and nutrition programs and
improves the overall odds of children surviving to adulthood.
This chapter presents estimates of levels, trends, and differentials in neonatal, postneonatal,
infant, child, and under-5 mortality in Timor-Leste. The data for mortality estimates were collected
through the birth history section of the Woman’s Questionnaire. Women of reproductive age (15-49)
were asked a series of questions on the number of biological sons and daughters living with them, the
number living elsewhere, and the number who have died. In addition, for each live birth, women were
asked to provide information on sex, date of birth, whether the birth was single or multiple, and
survival status of the child. Current age was collected for living children, and age at death was
collected for children who died.
8.1 DEFINITION, DATA QUALITY, AND METHODOLOGY
Childhood mortality estimates in DHS surveys measure the risk of dying from birth through
age 5. The rates of childhood mortality presented in this chapter are defined as follows:
Neonatal mortality (NN): the probability of dying between birth and the first month of life
Postneonatal mortality (PNN): the difference between infant and neonatal mortality
Infant mortality (1q0): the probability of dying between birth and exact age 1
Child mortality (4q1): the probability of dying between exact age 1 and exact age 5
Under-5 mortality (5q0): the probability of dying between birth and exact age 5.
All rates are expressed per 1,000 live births, except child mortality, which is expressed per
1,000 children surviving to age 12 months.
Information on stillbirths and deaths that occurred within seven days of birth is used to
estimate perinatal mortality, which is the number of stillbirths and early neonatal deaths per 1,000
stillbirths and live births.
8.2 ASSESSMENT OF DATA QUALITY
The accuracy of mortality estimates depends on the sampling variability of the estimates and
on nonsampling errors. Sampling variability and sampling errors are discussed in detail in Appendix
C. Nonsampling errors depend on the extent to which the date of birth and age at death are accurately
reported and recorded and the completeness with which child deaths are reported. Omission of births
and deaths affects mortality estimates, displacement of birth and death dates influences mortality
trends, and misreporting of age at death may distort the age pattern of mortality. Typically, the most
serious source of nonsampling errors in a survey that collects retrospective information on births and
deaths is the underreporting of births and deaths of children who were dead at the time of the survey.
It may be that mothers are reluctant to talk about their dead children because of the sorrow associated
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