# Global Age Patterns of Under-Five Mortality

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2021 · $41,362

## Abstract

Project Summary
The Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) is a key and widely-used indicator of child health, but it conceals
important information about how this mortality is distributed by age. For better understanding and monitoring
of child health, it is critical to examine how the risk of death varies within the 0-5 age range. This includes age
breakdowns beyond the standard cut-off points of 28 days (for neonatal mortality) and 1 year (for infant
mortality). In many populations, however, the age pattern of under-5 mortality is not well known. Less-
developed countries, in particular, lack the high-quality detailed vital registration information necessary for the
analysis of such age patterns. Sample surveys collecting retrospective birth histories do not satisfactorily fill
this gap, because they are subject to systematic biases that are particularly consequential for estimating age
patterns. This makes the need for high-quality information on age patterns of under-5 mortality even more
critical, because regularities in these age patterns can be used as a powerful tool for evaluating and correcting
data when sources are deficient. In the parent project of this competing revision application, we are improving
our understanding of age patterns of under-5 mortality by: gathering the largest database to date on high-
quality global mortality information by detailed age (by days, weeks, months, and years of age) from birth until
age 5, by sex; developing models summarizing regularities about how under-5 mortality is distributed by
detailed age in human populations; using these models for evaluating and correcting under-5 mortality
information by detailed age in less-developed countries; addressing specific substantive questions about how
and why age patterns of under-5 mortality vary by sex, time, and place, with important programmatic
implications. The goal of this administrative supplement project is to expand the aims of the parent project by
tracking and retrospectively obtaining a pregnancy and birth history (as used in the DHS) with selected
participants (live births, stillbirths and neonatal deaths) from a prospective pregnancy cohort study in rural
Nepal. This will help us determine if the DHS over or underestimates neonatal mortality and whether
misclassification of stillbirths and early neonatal deaths plays a role. These results will add to the literature on
the validity of DHS vital event estimation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10472250
- **Project number:** 3R01HD090082-05S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** MICHEL GUILLOT
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $41,362
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10472250

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10472250, Global Age Patterns of Under-Five Mortality (3R01HD090082-05S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10472250. Licensed CC0.

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