Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

6.4.2 Household ReportingIn the Household Questionnaire, one adult member was charged with reporting on all usualhousehold members and others who were currently in the household (visitors). The household respondentmay or may not have had assistance from other persons present during the interview. The numerator ofmortality rates calculated from the Household Questionnaire is based on questions asked about deaths inthe five years before the survey, that is, since 21 March 2005 (1 Hammal 1384 in the Afghan calendar) tousual residents of the household. The sex and age at death was recorded for all deaths. For each death, averbal autopsy form was applied, collecting information on the date of birth and date of death of thedeceased. Different forms were used for neonates (age at death up to 28 days), children age one month toeleven years, and adults age 12 years and older. The denominator for the household-based mortality ratesconsists of the number of person-years of exposure to dying in the five years preceding the date ofinterview.A number of factors influence the quality of the adult mortality data, including heaping of ages atdeath, transference of the date of death, and underreporting of deaths. With reference to heaping, Figure6.4 shows the distribution by age at death of adults as directly reported from the household respondentand as calculated from the verbal autopsy using information on the birth and death dates of deceasedpersons. It is evident from this figure that age at death is quite heaped from both sources of data. AsFigure 6.5 shows, even with limiting the age range to between 15-59 years, there is still a substantialamount of digit preference for ages ending in zero and five. Except for 28 years of age, there is littledifference between the distributions from the direct report on age at death and that calculated by thedifference between the date of death and the date of birth. Figure 6.6 shows that preference for agesending in zero and five is not limited to the South zone alone.300250Figure 6.4 Age Distribution of Deaths at Ages 15 and OverReported in the Household Questionnaire and in the VerbalAutopsy, Afghanistan 2010HH deathsVA deathsNumber of deaths20015010050015 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90Age at death in yearsAMS 2010118 | Adult Mortality