Palestinian Family Survey 2010 Final Report - Palestinian Central ...

PCBS: Palestinian Family Survey, 2010V. Child MortalityOne of the overarching goals of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Fit for Children (WFFC) isto reduce infant and under-five mortality. Specifically, the MDGs call for the reduction of under-five mortality by twothirdsbetween 1990 and 2015. Monitoring progress towards this goal is an important but difficult objective.Measuring child mortality rates may seem easy, but both the estimation methods of direct and indirect have pros andcons. Indirect estimation method does not provide accurate estimates on the age at death also cannot provide detaileddata as provided by the direct method that is based on the birth history of the woman. The adoption of birth historyis also problematic because it is time-consuming and women recall problems. In the Palestinian Family Survey, directmethod was used to estimate child mortality using the birth history. To ensure quality and accuracy of mortality datafrom the birth history, the training mechanisms focused on the methodology of completing the birth history. Alsomonitoring and daily fieldwork follow-up was conducted with specifically reviewing the birth history. Visits to randomlyselected samples were conducted to ensure accuracy and quality of work.Mortality rates presented in this chapter are calculated from information collected in the birth histories of the Women’sQuestionnaire. Women in the age-group 15-49 were asked whether they had ever given birth, and if they had,they were asked to report the number of sons and daughters who live with them, the number who live elsewhere,and the number who have died. In addition, they were asked to provide a detailed birth history of their children inchronological order starting with the first child. Women were asked whether a birth was single or multiple; the sex ofthe child; the date of birth (month and year); survival status; age of the child on the date of the interview if alive; andif not alive; the age at death of each live birth. Since the primary causes of childhood mortality change as children age,mostly biological factors to environmental factors, childhood mortality rates are expressed by age categories and arecustomarily defined as follows:• Neonatal mortality (NN): the probability of dying within the first month of life.• Post-neonatal mortality (PNN): the difference between infant and neonatal mortality.• Infant mortality ( 1q 0): the probability of dying between birth and the first birthday.• Child mortality ( 4q 0): the probability of dying between exact ages one and five.• Under-five mortality ( 5q 0): the probability of dying between birth and the fifth birthday.The rates for childhood mortality rates are expressed as deaths per 1,000 live births, except in the case of child mortality,which is expressed as deaths per 1,000 infants surviving to age one.Three major factors may affect the accuracy of calculation:1. Mistakes in registering the date of birth or increasing the age of the child from 4 to 5 years by researchers to minimizethe effort required in collecting data about children under 5.2. Not registering the date of birth of the child by the family to avoid a painful incident or by the researcher to minimizethe effort.3. Poor framework of the sample due to old or incomplete samples.23