A Verbal/Social Autopsy (VASA) child mortality inquiry to investigate under-five mortality determinants in slums of Karachi, Pakistan: A Mix Methods Interventional Study

A Verbal/Social Autopsy (VASA) child mortality inquiry to investigate under-five mortality determinants in slums of Karachi, Pakistan: A Mix Methods Interventional Study

Blog Article

Background: Pakistan stands along top ten countries responsible for two-third of global child mortality burden.To improve Child Mortality (CM) estimates in Pakistan, there is an exigent need to understand the in-depth reasoning behind mortalities.In Pakistan, the data on cause-of-death (CoD) for a large number of child mortalities in Pakistan is either not available or not suitable for use.

Pakistan uses an alternative technique called Verbal autopsy Basins - Emesis Basins (VA).Since VA only determines the biological cause of death (BCoD), and does not capture multitude of other modifiable social, cultural and health system determinants, it has a limited importance.Such non-biological determinants are captured by another technique i.

e.Social Autopsy (SA).Objective: By integrating VA with SA, extended set of mortality related determinants will be explored, in addition to strengthening death notification coverage and assigning CoD in such missed out mortalities.

Method: Under the working group of Health Advocacy Council for Women and Children (HACWC) in collaboration with Child Registry of Pakistan (CROP), mixed method (QUAN-QUAL) interventional study will be carried out in urban-slums of Karachi city using VASA-integrated under-five mortality investigative technique.Parents of dead children will be interviewed.Second stage of study will be followed by qualitative interviews with different cadres of stakeholders.

Expected Outcomes: By focusing the specific determinants related to case-management and care-seeking process (identified by The Pathway to Survival Framework-TPtoSF) an in-depth understanding of related determinants can be achieved, which will help in crafting potential interventions required to limit the barriers that increase Babywear the chances of CM in developing nations.