Karen Carter, Research Officer
Date: Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Time: 1pm - 2pm
Venue: ES Meyers Lecture Theatre, Mayne Medical School
Topic: Mortality and Cause of Death in the Pacific Islands
While mortality level and cause of death structure are fundamental measures of population health and critical for health planning and evaluation, there remains a significant lack of information on these measures in many Pacific Island nations. Improved data will be critical to the region in the face of challenges including an increase in chronic diseases and meeting MDG targets.
This presentation will use examples from selected Pacific Islands that are currently the focus of an Australian Development Research Award to examine the systems that collect and analyse mortality and cause of death information in the islands, the effect of these systems on data availability and quality and the implications for policy makers. The project will also use additional research methods to improve the utility of available data. These include 'capture-recapture' analyses to measure completeness of death registration and subsequently adjust the reported data; and field research to assess validity of reported causes of death using medical record reviews. Corrected mortality and cause of death estimates will improve understanding of the epidemiological transition currently being experienced by Pacific island countries.
