Approaches to the measurement of childhood mortality: a comparative review

"In the developing world, measures of child mortality are needed for a variety of purposes, and estimates of child mortality can be obtained by a variety of approaches. In this paper, the author reviews the characteristics that child mortality measures should have for particular purposes, and then examines the available measurement approaches to determine the extent to which they provide accurate measures with the required characteristics. Particular emphasis is put on the comparative performance of different approaches in different settings to produce estimates of recent levels and trends in child mortality. He concludes that no single approach can satisfy all measurement purposes and that all approaches are sensitive to the quality of data collection, but that many needs can be met by relatively inexpensive data collection and analysis methods."