UN or regional body paper
Levels and Trends in Child Mortality : Report 2018
·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This report from the UN Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) presents the latest estimates, up to 2017, of under-five, infant and neonatal mortality, and of mortality among children aged 5–14. It assesses progress in reducing child and young adolescent deaths at country, regional and global levels. It notes that millions of children still die each year, mostly from preventable or treatable causes. It also gives an overview of the methods used to produce the estimates.
Key points
- Millions of newborns, children and young adolescents die every year, mostly from preventable or treatable causes such as infectious diseases and injuries.
- Large reductions in mortality among under-5s and among children aged 5–14 have occurred in recent decades.
- These deaths reflect limited access to basic health interventions such as vaccination, treatment of infectious diseases, adequate nutrition, and clean water and sanitation.
- Many countries lack reliable vital registration data, so modelling and monitoring of mortality rates remains necessary for policymaking.
- Child survival is part of the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health (2016–2030) and of Sustainable Development Goal 3.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so it gives no actual mortality figures, country results or details of the estimation methods. The countries covered are not listed individually; the work is global in scope.
Abstract
Despite progress over the past quarter-century, millions of newborns, children and young adolescents die every year, mostly of preventable or treatable causes such as infectious diseasesand injuries. These deaths reflect the limited access of children and communities to basichealth interventions such as vaccination, medical treatment of infectious diseases, adequatenutrition and clean water and sanitation. Therefore, mortality rates among children and young adolescents are not only key indicators for child and young adolescent well-being, but, more broadly, for sustainable social and economic development. While concerted efforts aimed at improving child survival have driven large reductions in mortality levels among children under 5 years of age as well as for children and young adolescents aged 5–14 in recent decades, persistent and intolerably high numbers of child and young adolescent deaths mean more work remains to be done to address the specific survival needs of children and young adolescents. The global community recognizes the crucial need to end preventable child deaths, making it an essential part of the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescent’s Health (2016–2030) and the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all people at all ages. Achieving the ambitious child survival goals requires ensuring universal access to safe,effective, high-quality and affordable care for women, children and adolescents. It alsorequires an understanding of the levels and trends in child mortality as well as the underlyingcauses of child and young adolescent deaths. The monitoring of child and young adolescentsurvival requires continual improvement in the measurement of mortality, particularly incountries that lack timely and accurate mortality data. Reliable estimates of child and youngadolescent mortality at the national, regional and global level are necessary for evidence-based policymaking to improve the survival chances of the world’s children. In the absence of reliable vital registration data in many countries, modelling and monitoring of child and young adolescent mortality rates remains a necessary resource for policymaking and priority setting. The United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) produces estimates of child andyoung adolescent mortality annually, reconciling the differences across data sources and takinginto account the systematic biases associated with the various types of data on child and adolescent mortality. This report presents the UN IGME’s latest estimates – up to the year 2017 – of under five, infant, and neonatal mortality as well as mortality among children aged 5–14. It assesses progress in the reduction of child and young adolescent mortality at the country, regional and global levels, and provides an overview of the methods used to estimate the child mortality indicators mentioned above. (World)