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Days of Neonatal Death Not Matching to DHS Further Analysis Report [message #21663]

Sun, 06 December 2020 11:09

shujaat.smc@gmail.com is currently offline

shujaat.smc@gmail.com
Messages: 75
Registered: July 2020

Senior Member

Dear DHS Representative,

I am working on determinants of neonatal mortality in Pakistan using PDHS BR file 2017-18.

Though in my previous queries on this forum you elaborately told me how to generate a time variable for neonatal Deaths.

Today I was making a table similar to your's Table A.1. Distribution of reported neonatal deaths by age at death in days, and percentage of early neonatal deaths (deaths occurring at age 0-6 days), among births in the five years preceding the survey, Rwanda 2000-2010.

(Ref: Trends in Neonatal Mortality in Rwanda, 20002010 Further Analysis of the Rwanda Demographic and Health Surveys)

Question: Your table includes days range from <1 to 30. While I Used the b6 variable its ranges from (DHS category code 100 to 128) ie days of neonatal deaths in my table goes from <1(100) till 28(128). What mistake I have done if any that my table days are not similar to yours. (I didn't have Day 29 & 30)

Should I have to include b6 category code 201 (ie deaths that occurred at exactly one month)?

Even if I include b6 category code 201 in my table still my counting of days will range from <1 to 29 days (29 here will actually be deaths recorded at 1 month).

This is causing big confusion, please reply soon because I defined neonatal mortality in my analysis as per DHS definition (0-30), however, I am not able to justify it using the variable b6.

Looking forward to your reply.

Best Regards

Dr. Hussain

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Further Quest: Days of Neonatal Death Not Matching to DHS Further Analysis Report [message #21664 is a reply to message #21663]

Sun, 06 December 2020 11:31

shujaat.smc@gmail.com
Messages: 75
Registered: July 2020

Senior Member

Dear DHS Representative,

Please reply soon to this query, since I have developed my survival model using the time variable from b6 (100-128).

I am thinking that the period of neonatal death I have used up till now is according to WHO criteria of neonatal death (0-28) and not for DHS (0-30).

Quest: Instead of changing my time variable and repeating the whole analysis for the survival model, One Remedy is to just change my definition for defining neonatal mortality instead of DHS definition.

In this case, my table will match your Rwanda DHS further analysis report (2000-2010) table A1 on page 61. (from Day <1 uptill Day 28).

Please reply soon, desperately waiting!

Best Regards

Dr. Hussain

[Updated on: Sun, 06 December 2020 11:38]

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Re: Further Quest: Days of Neonatal Death Not Matching to DHS Further Analysis Report [message #21671 is a reply to message #21664]

Mon, 07 December 2020 10:08

Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3214
Registered: February 2013

Senior Member

Following is a response from DHS Research & Data Analysis Director, Tom Pullum:

I am not sure what your question is, but I think it's about whether you should use 28 or 30 days for neonatal deaths. The DHS programs for under-five mortality use b7=0 for neonatal deaths. They do not use b6. If you tabulate b6 for b7=0 and b7=1, you will see that b7=0 for b6=100 through 128 and b7=1 for b6=129 and 130. In other words, "month 0" for b7 is equivalent to "0-28" days on b6. DHS is consistent with WHO.

I would have to go back to old files to see whether b7=0 has always been recoded to extend just to day 28. The fraction of child deaths that are reported on days 29 and 30 is very small, and in terms of measurement error there are many more serious issues of omission and displacement than what happens (or is reported) for those two days.

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Re: Further Quest: Days of Neonatal Death Not Matching to DHS Further Analysis Report [message #21672 is a reply to message #21671]

Mon, 07 December 2020 10:26

shujaat.smc@gmail.com
Messages: 75
Registered: July 2020

Senior Member

Dear Tom Pullum, Greetings!

Thanks for your reply.

Putting it simply, " I have used b6 for defining the days of neonatal death selecting the b6 category code 100 till 128" This corresponds to the definition of WHO for the neonatal time period that is 0-28 days. Is this statement correct?

I am asking this because initially in my protocol I define the neonatal time period as 0-30 days (DHS definition), however, after performing analysis I realized that actually selecting the b6 time range for neonatal age (100-128) differs from my definition for the neonatal age and I have to correct my protocol as well as my writeup to avoid misreporting.

Conclusion: Taking time range of b6 from 100-128 corresponds to neonatal age 0-28 days. (Is my understanding correct?)

Also; I noticed in your reply that you mentioned b6=129 & b6=130, However, these two categories code for b6 is not available in Pakistan DHS BR file 2017-18. kindly check it.

Best Regards

Dr. Hussain

[Updated on: Mon, 07 December 2020 10:34]

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