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Measuring maternal mortality through the census: rapier or bludgeon?

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Abstract

There is increased demand for maternal mortality estimates as a result of the choice of the Maternal Mortality Ratio as the key indicator for Millennium Development Goal 5. Given this strong demand, the United Nations Principles and Recommendations for Population Censuses suggest the inclusion of questions on recent household deaths, plus questions to identify pregnancy-related deaths in countries lacking empirical, national estimates. This paper evaluates the results of census-based measurement of pregnancy-related mortality using three different types of consistency checks applied in selected countries. Results from these evaluations are mixed. Overall, the census approach seems to produce robust estimates of the number of births. However, the consistency and plausibility of results relating to mortality vary substantially by country and by indicator. It is not clear whether the census-based methodology performs better or worse than the frequently used sibling histories. The results presented here clearly demonstrate the need for careful data evaluation and interpretation.

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Notes

  1. Whether this attention is warranted, given the burden of disease generated by maternal mortality, is beyond the scope of this paper.

  2. Calculated for the intercensal period, in the case of Burkina Faso applying the age-specific rates for 2006 to the intercensal population age distribution and in the case of Zimbabwe averaging the 1992 and 2002 age-specific rates and applying them to the intercensal population age distribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Kenneth Hill

  2. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21215, USA

    Cynthia Stanton

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  1. Kenneth Hill
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  2. Cynthia Stanton
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Correspondence to Kenneth Hill.

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Hill, K., Stanton, C. Measuring maternal mortality through the census: rapier or bludgeon?. J Pop Research 28, 31–47 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-011-9058-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-011-9058-1

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