Modeling Age Patterns of Under-5 Mortality: Results From a Log-Quadratic Model Applied to High-Quality Vital Registration Data
Penn collection
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
neonatal mortality
model life tables
mortality models
age patterns of mortality
indirect methods
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Family, Life Course, and Society
Inequality and Stratification
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Contributor
Abstract
Information about how the risk of death varies with age within the 0-5 age range represents critical evidence for guiding health policy. This paper proposes a new model for summarizing regularities about how under-5 mortality is distributed by detailed age. The model is based on a newly compiled database that contains under-5 mortality information by detailed age in countries with high-quality vital registration systems, covering a wide array of mortality levels and patterns. The model uses a log-quadratic approach, predicting a full mortality schedule between age 0 and 5 on the basis of only 1 or 2 parameters. With its larger number of age groups, the proposed model offers greater flexibility than existing models both in terms of entry parameters and model outcomes. We present applications of this model for evaluating and correcting under-5 mortality information by detailed age in countries with problematic mortality data.