Australian Development Gateway

The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Skip to content

ADG channels:

Information by sector: Disaster management

Sub navigation

ADG TOOLBOX

Emergency response

Interpreting and using mortality data in humanitarian emergencies (pdf 680kb)

This Network Paper describes the practice and purpose of epidemiology concerned with population mortality.  It sets out the key indicators used to express mortality data, different options for how to measure mortality rates and suggestions for how to assess, interpret and use mortality reports. The paper also discusses the politics of mortality figures.

Its aim is to enable readers to critically interpret mortality study reports, and to understand how these are used (or misused) to formulate policy. The intended audience is therefore all humanitarian actors, policy-makers, the media and members of affected communities, who may be called upon to comment on or make use of mortality studies, regardless of their technical background.

 

Footer: