Estimating child mortality due to diarrhoea in developing countries.

Area of Science:

• Global child health epidemiology
• Public health surveillance
• Mortality estimation

Background:

• Diarrhoea remains a leading cause of under-five mortality globally.
• Accurate cause-of-death data is often lacking in low-resource settings.
• Existing data may not adequately capture the burden of diarrhoeal diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate diarrhoea mortality in children under five at country, regional, and global levels.
• To apply the Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) standard for mortality estimation.
• To provide reliable data for public health interventions and planning.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a systematic literature review of studies published since 1980 on under-five diarrhoea mortality.
• Collected data on study and population characteristics.
• Utilized a regression model to estimate diarrhoea mortality distribution in national populations.

Main Results:

• Estimated 1.87 million global deaths from diarrhoea in children under five (19% of total child deaths).
• WHO African and South-East Asia Regions account for 78% of these deaths (1.46 million).
• 73% of diarrhoea deaths are concentrated in 15 developing countries.

Conclusions:

• Lack of regular cause-of-death data hinders planning for diarrhoea control interventions.
• The study's methods provide crucial country-level estimates for data-poor settings.
• These estimates serve as vital alternatives for planning and evaluating child survival strategies.