Nonviolence-Related Mortality in Iraq: Evidence from Iraq Family Health Survey (IFHS)

• Activity Number: 389
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Mohamed M. Ali*+
• Companies: WHO-MHI
• Keywords: iraq ; cause-specific mortality ; excess death ; survey ; Uncertainty range

Abstract

The recent paper "Violence-Related Mortality in Iraq, 2002--2006," published in the New England Journal of Medicine by the IFHS study group, focused mainly on the violence-related mortality and reported only on the unadjusted pre- and post-invasion nonviolence rates. Estimating the nonviolence deaths and the overall and cause specific excess deaths are equally important. In this paper we will analyze the IFHS mortality data with more emphasis on the nonviolence deaths and we will attempt to assess the post-invasion excess deaths. As for the violence-related deaths, adjustment methods will be used to attempt to account for under-reporting and other sources of bias in estimates of nonviolence deaths. Mortality rates by selected background characteristics will be presented and the limitations of the data and the methods used will be discussed.