MEASUREMENT OF OVERALL AND CAUSE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY IN INFANTS AND CHILDREN - MEMORANDUM FROM A WHO UNICEF MEETING

A joint WHO/UNICEF informal consultation on the ''Measurement of overa ll and cause-specific mortality in infants and children'' was held in Geneva on 15-17 December 1992. The participants included physicians, d emographers, statisticians and programme personnel from different regi ons. The recommendations were aimed at helping countries and internati onal organizations to produce more frequent and more reliable data on overall child mortality and to estimate broad patterns of child mortal ity by cause of death, especially for ranking the major causes of deat h and monitoring progress towards the achievement of mortality reducti on goals of the World Summit for Children. The verbal autopsy method w as reviewed to assess its potential for use in different situations-su rveys, longitudinal surveillance, health services and civil registrati on-and its capacity to provide national estimates of cause of death. D ocumented national and international experiences and validation studie s were examined together with other methods already being used. The po tential of the preceding birth technique and other indirect methods to estimate mortality in childhood-for use by countries and programmes m ore frequently and with as much disaggregation as possible-was evaluat ed.