Estimates of mortality in children younger than 5 years for Burkina Faso.

摘要

Julie Rajaratnam and colleagues (June 5, p 1988) report on the trends and estimates of child mortality for 187 countries. We believe that the estimates reported for Burkina Faso are unrealistically low.The reported mortality rate in children younger than 5 years (U5MR) of 1337 per 1000 (uncertainty range 114-3-155-8) for 2010 is much lower than the UNICEF estimate for 2008 of 169 per 1000 (141-5-201-l).The main explanation for the difference proposed by Rajaratnam and colleagues was their use of more recent data. Inspection of the webappendix, however, reveals that the most recent data used were the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey and the 2006 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, exactly as they were in the UNICEF survey. A decennial population census in December, 2006, in Burkina Faso estimated the U5MR at 142 per 1000, but acknowledged that the reality might be higher. It is not clear why Rajaratnam and colleagues ignored this nationally representative dataset.