The use of epidemiological tools in conflict-affected populations: open-access educational resources for policy-makers

Table of Contents

1. Welcome
2. Introduction: Epidemiology in crises
3. Ethical issues in data collection
4. Need for epidemiologic competence
5. Surveys - Introduction
6. Surveys - Description of sampling methods
7. Surveys - Sampling error, bias, accuracy, precision, & sample size
8. Surveys - Resources required for surveys
9. Surveys - Critiquing survey reports
10. Surveillance - When to do surveillance
11. Surveillance - Methods
12. Surveillance - Common problems
13. Programme data
14. Rapid assessment
15. Mortality - Indicators and their measurement
16. Mortality - Data sources
    1. Introduction
    2. Surveillance - Prospective death reporting
    3. Surveys (retrospective data collection)
    4. Recall period
    5. Determining the length of the recall period
    6. Data collection and the questionnaire
    7. Surveys - Quiz
    8. Surveys measuring mortality - Summary
17. Mortality - Interpretation and action
18. Nutrition - Introduction and background
19. Nutrition - Indicators and their measurement
20. Nutrition - Data sources
21. Nutrition - Interpretation and action
22. Health services
23. Vaccination programmes
24. Water supply, sanitation, and shelter
25. Violence
26. Presentation of results
27. Formulating conclusions and recommendations
28. Dissemination and action

Introduction

(go to Outline)

There are two major ways to collect the number of deaths in an emergency-affected population:

• Count deaths prospectively by implementing a surveillance system to count deaths as they occur.
• Count deaths retrospectively which have occurred in the recent past during a cross-sectional survey.

Prospective death surveillance is preferable because it can give you more up-to-date counts of deaths and the ability to continually monitor trends in mortality rates. Only if prospective death surveillance is not feasible, or if there are serious doubts about the completeness or accuracy of prospective death surveillance, should a survey be done to measure mortality rates.