Interim measures for meeting needs for health sector data: births, deaths, and causes of death

In many developing countries, effective civil registration systems that provide information about population health do not exist. This paper, the third in a series of Lancet papers focusing on collecting data for health development, examines the interim approaches that have been used to fill these information gaps. It reviews their strengths and weaknesses in the collection and analysis of data and highlights inadequate measures. Interim approaches include targeted questions in population censuses, sample vital registration systems, demographic surveillance sites, and household surveys.

The paper shows that the methods have been developed as cost-effective alternatives for deriving demographic estimates in the absence of civil registration. However, they rely on retrospective reports of events and are thus prone to selection bias and unable to give timely warning of mortality crises. The paper concludes that interim measures should not be regarded as substitutes for complete civil registration but rather as complementary, essential parts of any fully comprehensive health information system. International organisations, national governments, and academia all have responsibilities to ensure that data continue to be collected and that collection and analysis methods continue to be improved.