How fast did newborns die in Nigeria from 2009-2013: a time-to-death analysis using Verbal /Social Autopsy data

Validation of CHERG'S Verbal Autopsy-Social Autopsy (VASA) tool for ascertaining determinants and causes of under-five child mortality in Pakistan

The majority (40%) of the world's under-five mortality burden is concentrated in nations like Nigeria (16.5%), India (16%), Pakistan (8%), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6%), where an undetermined number of under-five deaths go unrecorded. In low-resource settings throughout the world, the Verbal Autopsy-Social Autopsy (VASA) technique may assist assess under-five mortality estimates, assigning medical and social causes of death, and identifying relevant determinants. Uncertainty regarding missing data in high-burden nations like Pakistan necessitates a valid and reliable VASA instrument. This is the first study to validate Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group-CHERG's VASA tool globally. In Pakistan, data from such a valid and reliable tool is vital for policy. This paper reports on the VASA tool in Karachi, Pakistan. Validity and reliability of the CHERG VASA tool were tested using face, content, discriminant validation, and reliability tests on one hundred randomly selected mothers who had recently experienced an under-five child death event. Data were computed on SPSS (version-21) and R software. Testing revealed high Item-content Validity Index (I-CVI) (>81.43%); high Cronbach's Alpha (0.843); the accuracy of between 75-100% of the discriminants classifying births to live and stillbirths; and I-CVI (>82.07% and 88.98% respectively) with high accuracy (92% and 97% respectively) for assigning biological and social causes of child deaths, respectively. The CHERG VASA questionnaire was found relevant to the conceptual framework and valid in Pakistan. This valid tool can assign accurate medical and non-medical causes of child mortality cases occurring in Pakistan.

Verbal/social autopsy analysis of causes and determinants of under-5 mortality in Tanzania from 2010 to 2016

Background

Tanzania has decreased its child mortality rate by more than 70 percent in the last three decades and is striving to develop a nationally-representative sample registration system with verbal autopsy to help focus health policies and programs toward further reduction. As an interim measure, a verbal and social autopsy study was conducted to provide vital information on the causes and social determinants of neonatal and child deaths.

Methods

Causes of neonatal and 1-59 month-old deaths identified by the 2015-16 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey were assessed using the expert algorithm verbal autopsy method. The social autopsy examined prevalence of key household, community and health system indicators of preventive and curative care provided along the continuum of care and Pathway to Survival models. Careseeking for neonates and 1-59 month-olds was compared, and tests of associations of age and cause of death to careseeking indicators and place of death were conducted.

Results

The most common causes of death of 228 neonates and 351 1-59 month-olds, respectively, were severe infection, intrapartum related events and preterm delivery, and pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. Coverage of early initiation of breastfeeding (24%), hygienic cord care (29%), and full immunization of 12-59 month-olds (33%) was problematic. Most (88.8%) neonates died in the first week, including 44.3% in their birth facility before leaving. Formal care was sought for just 41.9% of newborns whose illness started at home and was delayed by 5.3 days for 1-59 month-olds who sought informal care. Care was less likely to be sought for the youngest neonates and infants and severely ill children. Although 70.3% of 233 under-5 year-olds were moderately or severely ill on discharge from their first provider, only 29.0%-31.2% were referred.

Conclusions

The study highlights needed actions to complete Tanzania’s child survival agenda. Low levels of some preventive interventions need to be addressed. The high rate of facility births and neonatal deaths requires strengthening of institutionally-based interventions targeting maternal labor and delivery complications and neonatal causes of death. Scale-up of Integrated Community Case Management should be considered to strengthen careseeking for the youngest newborns, infants and severely ill children and referral practices at first level facilities.

Death registration in Nigeria: a systematic literature review of its performance and challenges

Background

Death registration provides an opportunity for the legal documentation of death of persons. Documentation of deaths has several implications including its use in the recovery of inheritance and insurance benefits. It is also an important input for construction of life tables which are crucial for national planning. However, the registration of deaths is poor in several countries including Nigeria.

Objective

This paper describes the performance of death registration in Nigeria and factors that may affect its performance.

Methods

We conducted a systematic literature review of death registration completeness in Nigeria to identify, characterize issues as well as challenges associated with realizing completeness in death registration.

Results

Only 13.5% of deaths in Nigeria were registered in 2007 which regressed to 10% in 2017. There was no data reported for Nigeria in the World Health Organization database between 2008 and 2017. The country scored less than 0.1 (out of a maximum of 1) on the Vital Statistics Performance Index. There are multiple institutions with parallel constitutional and legal responsibilities for death registration in Nigeria including the National Population Commission, National Identity Management Commission and Local Government Authorities, which may be contributing to its overall poor performance.

Conclusions

We offer proposals to substantially improve death registration completeness in Nigeria including the streamlining and merger of the National Population Commission and the National Identity Management Commission into one commission, the revision of the legal mandate of the new agency to mainly coordination and establishment of standards. We recommend that Local Government authorities maintain the local registries given their proximity to households. This arrangement will be enhanced by increased utilization of information and communications technology in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics processes that ensure records are properly archived.