title: Economic feasibility of a new method to estimate mortality in crisis-affected and resource-poor settings.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mortality data provide essential evidence on the health status of populations in crisis-affected and resource-poor settings and to guide and assess relief operations. Retrospective surveys are commonly used to collect mortality data in such populations, but require substantial resources and have important methodological limitations. We evaluated the feasibility of an alternative method for rapidly quantifying mortality (the informant method). The study objective was to assess the economic feasibility of the informant method.
  
  
  METHODS
  The informant method captures deaths through an exhaustive search for all deaths occurring in a population over a defined and recent recall period, using key community informants and next-of-kin of decedents. Between July and October 2008, we implemented and evaluated the informant method in: Kabul, Afghanistan; Mae La camp for Karen refugees, Thai-Burma border; Chiradzulu District, Malawi; and Lugufu and Mtabila refugee camps, Tanzania. We documented the time and cost inputs for the informant method in each site, and compared these with projections for hypothetical retrospective mortality surveys implemented in the same site with a 6 month recall period and with a 30 day recall period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The informant method was estimated to require an average of 29% less time inputs and 33% less monetary inputs across all four study sites when compared with retrospective surveys with a 6 month recall period, and 88% less time inputs and 86% less monetary inputs when compared with retrospective surveys with a 1 month recall period. Verbal autopsy questionnaires were feasible and efficient, constituting only 4% of total person-time for the informant method's implementation in Chiradzulu District.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The informant method requires fewer resources and incurs less respondent burden. The method's generally impressive feasibility and the near real-time mortality data it provides warrant further work to develop the method given the importance of mortality measurement in such settings.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom. bayard.roberts@lshtm.ac.uk
authors.forename: Bayard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Oliver W
authors.initials: OW
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: Mohammed Ghaus
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Sultani
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nyasulu
authors.forename: Sunday
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rwebangila
authors.forename: Egbert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sondorp
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chandramohan
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Checchi
mesh_terms: D000346:Afghanistan; D001344:Autopsy; D002423:Cause of Death; D003625:Data Collection / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006295:Health Resources; D006801:Humans; D008295:Malawi; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D002052:Myanmar; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015996:Survival Rate; D013636:Tanzania