Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

the number who had died. Each woman was also asked if she ever had a stillbirth, that is, a baby that wasnot born alive, and, if so, how many stillbirths she had had in her lifetime.A detailed history of the woman’s births was then recorded in chronological order, starting withthe first birth. To obtain that history, the mother was asked if the baby had been born alive or dead foreach birth she reported. In the case of live births, information was then obtained on whether the birth wassingle or multiple, the date of birth (month and year), sex and survival status. If the child was still alive atthe time of the interview, the age of the child on the date of interview was obtained. If the child was nolonger alive, the child’s age at death was obtained. In the case of stillbirths, i.e., when the baby did notbreathe or show other signs of life at birth, the mother was asked about how long the pregnancy hadlasted.In this chapter, child mortality rates are also derived from data on deaths of usual householdmembers that occurred during the five-year period prior to the survey. The information on householddeaths was obtained by asking the household respondent 1 about any deaths of usual household membersthat had occurred since 21 March 2005 (1 Hammal 1384). Because the Household Questionnaire did notcollect information on children’s birth dates, the exposure time used for calculating the child mortalityrates had to be taken from other sources. For living children, it was calculated from information obtainedin the household schedule. For dead children, the information on the child’s birth date and age at the timeof death was obtained from the Verbal Autopsy Questionnaire. 25.1.2 Child Mortality Rate DefinitionsThe primary causes of childhood mortality shift from biological to environmental factors aschildren age. Thus, the information obtained in the pregnancy history about the age at death of childrenwho were born alive but later died is used to calculate childhood mortality rates according to thefollowing customarily defined age categories:• Neonatal mortality (NN): the probability of dying within the first month of life• Postneonatal mortality (PNN): the difference between infant and neonatal mortality• Infant mortality ( 1 q 0 ): the probability of dying between birth and the first birthday• Child mortality ( 4 q 1 ): the probability of dying between exact ages 1 and 5• Under-5 mortality ( 5 q 0 ): the probability of dying between birth and the fifth birthday.These rates are expressed as deaths per 1,000 live births except for the child mortality rate, whichis expressed as deaths per 1,000 children surviving to age 1.The data obtained on household deaths can be used to calculate infant and under-5 mortality ratesbut not neonatal and postneonatal mortality rates. This is because adequately detailed exposure time isavailable only for the dead neonates and not for the survivors since date of birth information was notcollected for living children in the Household Questionnaire.Finally, in addition to child mortality rates, the information on stillbirths from the pregnancyhistories is combined with information on deaths that occurred during the early neonatal period, i.e., the1 In the AMS 2010, 97 percent of the household respondents were male. In contrast, all respondents to the Woman’sQuestionnaire were women.2 Two different versions of the questionnaires were used according to the age of the child at the time of death: Form1 for infants aged 0-28 days and Form 2 for children aged 29 days to 11 years.90 | Infant and Child Mortality