The Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) is a key and widely-used indicator of child health, but it conceals important information about how this mortality is distributed by age. For better understanding and monitoring of child health, it is critical to examine how the risk of death varies within the 0-5 age range. This includes age breakdowns beyond the standard cut-off points of 28 days (for neonatal mortality) and 1 year (for infant mortality). In many populations, however, the age pattern of under-5 mortality is not well known. Less- developed countries, in particular, lack the high-quality detailed vital registration information necessary for the analysis of such age patterns. Sample surveys collecting retrospective birth histories do not satisfactorily fill this gap, because they are subject to systematic biases that are particularly consequential for estimating age patterns. This makes the need for high-quality information on age patterns of under-5 mortality even more critical, because regularities in these age patterns can be used as a powerful tool for evaluating and correcting data when sources are deficient. The goal of this project is to improve our understanding of age patterns of under-5 mortality by gathering the largest database to date on high-quality global mortality information by detailed age (by days, weeks, months, and years of age) from birth until age 5, by sex. This database, which will cover a wide array of historical and contemporary contexts in both more- and less-developed settings, will serve as a basis for generating models summarizing regularities about how under-5 mortality is distributed by detailed age in human populations. These models will then be used for evaluating and correcting under-5 mortality information by detailed age in less-developed countries. This global database, and models derived from it, will also allow us to address specific substantive questions about how and why age patterns of under-5 mortality vary by sex, time, and place, with important programmatic implications. This database will be made publicly-available, allowing the research community to easily access high-quality primary information on under-5 mortality by detailed age for their own research needs, and for further validation and replication of the project's results.

Public Health Relevance

Information about how the risk of death varies with age within the 0-5 age range represents critical evidence for guiding health policy. This information indicates ages at which children are particularly vulnerable, helps better evaluate the impact of health interventions, and provides indirect information about underlying causes of death. The present study will make important contributions to our understanding of age patterns of under-5 mortality by bringing together high-quality global information on these age patterns, by providing a new method for estimating them in places where data are deficient, and by improving our knowledge about how and why these age patterns vary by sex, time and place.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD090082-01
Application #
9217905
Study Section
Social Sciences and Population Studies A Study Section (SSPA)
Program Officer
Chinn, Juanita Jeanne
Project Start
2017-09-19
Project End
2022-06-30
Budget Start
2017-09-19
Budget End
2018-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pennsylvania
Department
Social Sciences
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
042250712
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19104