Statistical models are finally being replaced with actual health and demographic data in 16 countries across Africa and Asia. This means that donors and nonindustrialized countries will have more accurate information for calculating the burden of disease and developing more effective health policies.
The data, drawn from continuous household monitoring of deaths, births and migrations at key field sites where data collection used to be sporadic, was published by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). “The study will provide an important resource for scientists studying current survival patterns in Africa, especially in the face of a rising tide of HIV,” says Dr. Don de Savigny of the IDRC's Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Project.
The study, Population Health in Developing Countries, is the first in a series produced by the international network INDEPTH (International Network for the Continuous Demographic Evaluation of Populations and their Health in Developing Countries). Established in 1998, INDEPTH formed a network among 17 field stations that provided continuous monitoring of health and demographic information. There are now 29 sites in 16 countries; donor groups include the Rockefeller Foundation, World Health Organization and IDRC.
Publication of the study is ideally timed, given the recent release of a report by the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, headed by Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs (see CMAJ 2002;166[3]:361). It called for an investment of US$66 billion a year by 2015 to improve the health, and ultimately the economies, of the world's underdeveloped countries. The IDRC says data in the INDEPTH series can help plan the most effective and equitable use of such money.
“The need to establish reliable information to support health policies and programs has never been greater,” says Dr. Fred Binka, chair of the committee that conducted the study.
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