Citation

Hyder AA, Wali SA, Ghaffar A, Masud TI, Hill K. Public Health 2005; 119(6): 459-465.

Affiliation

Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Suite E-8132 Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. ahyder@jhsph.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.puhe.2004.08.017

PMID

15826886

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: 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). METHODS: The adjusted mortality data from PDS-1997 was used to estimate the burden of premature mortality using the healthy life year (HeaLY) methodology. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: 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.

Language: en