ESTIMATING THE COMPLETENESS OF UNDER-5 DEATH REGISTRATION IN EGYPT

To evaluate the completeness of registration of infant and child death s in Egypt, reinterviews were conducted with families who had reported a death of a child under age 5 in the five years before the survey fo r two national surveys recently conducted in Egypt: the United Nations PAPCHILD survey of 1990-1991 and the Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) of 1992. The survey instrument included questions regard ing notification of the death at the local health bureau. If the famil y said the death had been notified, separate employees searched the he alth bureau records for the registration. Overall 57% of infant deaths were reported as notified and 68% of those death reports were found, the corresponding figures for child deaths were 89% and 74%. Using the percentage reported as notified as an estimate for completeness of re gistration, we adjusted upward the national infant and child mortality rates front registration data, giving values of 73 per 1,000 for infa nt mortality and 99 for (5)q(0) for the period 1987-1990. These values are approximately 20% above the corresponding direct estimates from t he PAPCHILD and EDHS surveys.