Measuring the burden of premature mortality in Pakistan: use of sentinel surveillance systems

• Published in: Public health (London) Vol. 119; no. 6; pp. 459 - 465
• Main Authors: Hyder, A.A., Wali, S.A., Ghaffar, A., Masud, T.I., Hill, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2005
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Burden of disease; Cause of Death; Child; Child, Preschool; Cost of Illness; Female; Healthy life years (HeaLYs); Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged; Mortality; Pakistan; Pakistan - epidemiology; Sentinel Surveillance; Pakistan; Burden of disease; Healthy life years (HeaLYs); Pakistan; Mortality
• ISSN: 0033-3506; 1476-5616
• DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2004.08.017

In developing countries, finding valid and reliable data is a great challenge. The Federal Bureau of Statistics in Pakistan maintains a surveillance system that records vital events. Results are reported as the Pakistan Demographic Survey (PDS). The adjusted mortality data from PDS-1997 was used to estimate the burden of premature mortality using the healthy life year (HeaLY) methodology. The burden of premature mortality for Pakistan was 367 HeaLYs lost per 1000 population. More than half of the HeaLYs are being lost due to infection, maternal and perinatal conditions, and malnutrition. In the absence of a system maintaining reliable information regarding vital events, PDS provides a good alternate source of such information that can be used to aid policy making for health care and future research.