A H Baqui; A A Sabir; N Begum; S E Arifeen; S N Mitra; R E Black
Abstract:
Knowledge of the causes of child death is important for health-sector
planning since they relate to available interventions. Little is known about
causes of child death in Bangladesh from the conventional sources since there is
no vital registration system and very few deaths are attended by a qualified
physician. To determine the cause structure of child deaths, verbal autopsy
interviews were conducted in the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS)
1993/94 national sample. Verbal autopsy is a method of finding out the causes of
death based on an interview with the next of kin or other caregivers. Between
BDHS 1993/94 and BDHS 1996/97, 1-4-y-old child mortality in Bangladesh declined
by about 27.0%. This impressive decline prompted a verbal autopsy study using
the BDHS 1996/97 national sample to determine whether the cause structure had
changed. The same verbal autopsy instrument and methods to collect the data and
the same computer algorithm to assign causes of death were used in both surveys.
Comparison of BDHS 1993/94 and 1996/97 cause-specific mortality rates revealed
that deaths due to almost all causes had declined, although significantly so
only for acute respiratory infections (ARI), persistent diarrhoea and drowning.
Deaths due to neonatal tetanus, acute watery diarrhoea and undernutrition had
not decreased at all.
Conclusion:
Despite an impressive decline in deaths due to ARI, this condition remains
the most important known cause of death in Bangladeshi children. Neonatal
tetanus and measles together account for about 10% of deaths in children under 5
y. Further improvements in child survival are possible by improving access to
and quality of available child survival interventions.
|
If you have come to this page from an outside location click here to get back to mindfully.org |