Tag Archives: children

New estimates of the causes of child death under age 5

WHO has just released the latest update on global causes of death for children under age 5 for years 2000-2017. These are available for download on the WHO website at  https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates/en/index2.html and also in the Global Health Observatory at http://www.who.int/gho. Continue reading

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Child mortality continues to decline, but large disparities remain

The United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME) released new data last week showing that the world has made substantial progress in reducing child mortality in the last several decades. The total number of child deaths has dropped … Continue reading

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Tenfold increase in childhood and adolescent obesity in four decades

The number of obese children and adolescents (aged five to 19 years) worldwide has risen tenfold in the past four decades. If current trends continue, more children and adolescents will be obese than moderately or severely underweight by 2022, according … Continue reading

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Monitoring trends in causes of death – India and the Million Death Study

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 include around 15 targets for mortality-related indicators.  The “gold” standard method for monitoring mortality and causes of death is a well-functioning civil registration system in which every death certificate has a medically … Continue reading

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Progress in reducing child deaths: updated estimates of causes and trends

Despite remarkable progress in the improvement of child survival between 1990 and 2015, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 target of a two-thirds reduction of under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) was not achieved globally. A paper published last week examined updated … Continue reading

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Child deaths in 2015: much accomplished, but more to do

In 2000, world leaders agreed on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDG 4 called for a two-thirds reduction in the under-5 mortality rate between 1990 and 2015. Today the UN Interagency Group on Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME), which my team … Continue reading

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Deaths of older children: what do the data tell us?

The Millenium Development Goals focused attention on child mortality under age 5 (where it is the highest) and the world has halved the child death rate from 1990 to 2015 (is-the-world-achieving-the-health-related-MDGs). Much less attention has been paid to older children … Continue reading

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Preterm birth is now the leading cause of death globally for children under age 5

For the first time in history, the complications of preterm birth outrank all other causes as the world’s number one killer of young children. This was the main finding of a paper we published in the Lancet in 2014 (https://colinmathers.com/2014/10/03/ending-preventable-child-deaths-by-2030/).

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Ending preventable child deaths by 2030

Trend data for causes of child death are crucial to inform priorities for improving child survival by and beyond 2015. With academic collaborators at Johns Hopkins University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine and Edinburgh University, we have just … Continue reading

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Child death rates falling faster – annual number of deaths halved since 1990

The United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME) released new data this week showing that under-five mortality rates have dropped by 49% between 1990 and 2013. The average annual reduction has accelerated – in some countries it has … Continue reading

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