The adolescent mortality rate measures changes in adolescent survival. The population aged 10 to 19 years has relatively lower mortality in most countries as compared with young children and neonates. Nonetheless, this is an important age group because the risks of deaths from injuries, notably road traffic injuries and drowning increase as young children age and become more mobile and therefore more independent.
Definition:
The mortality rate for these age groups as defined here is a probability of death derived from a life table and expressed as rate per 1 000 of an age specific cohort.
The mortality rate for the age 10-14 years is defined as the probability of an adolescent aged 10 years in a specific year dying before reaching the age of 15 years.
The mortality rate for the age 10-19 years is defined as the probability of an adolescent aged 10 years in a specific year dying before reaching the age of 20 years.
The mortality rate for the age 15-19 years is defined as the probability of an adolescent aged 15 years in a specific year dying before reaching the age of 20 years.
Disaggregation:
Sex
Method of measurement
Most frequently used methods are as follows:
• Civil registration: Number of deaths at age 0 years and population for the same age are used to calculate death rates which are then converted into age-specific probability of dying.
• Census and surveys: An indirect method is used based on questions to each woman of reproductive age as to how many children she has ever born and how many are still alive. The Brass method and model life tables are then used to obtain an estimate of adolescent mortality.
• Surveys: A direct method is used based on birth history - a series of detailed questions on each child a woman has given birth to during her lifetime. To reduce sampling errors, the estimates are generally presented as period rates, for five or 10 years preceding the survey.
M&E Framework:
Impact
Method of estimation:
The Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality of Estimation which includes representatives from UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and the United Nations Population Division, produces trends in mortality for the population under twenty-five years with standardized methodology by group of countries depending on the type and quality of source of data available. For countries with adequate trend of data from civil registration, the calculations are derived from a standard period abridged life table. For countries with survey data, mortality rates are estimated using the Bayesian B-splines bias-adjusted model. See the Estimation methods link for details. These mortality rates have been estimated by applying methods to the available data from Member States, that aim to ensure comparability across countries and time; hence they are not necessarily the same as the official national data. Predominant type of statistics: adjusted and predicted.
Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
Global and regional estimates are derived from numbers of estimated deaths and population for age groups and year, aggregated by relevant region.
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