Assessing Adult Mortality through Parental Survival Histories in Malawi: Findings from a Mobile Phone Survey

Monica Jamali-Phiri, University of Malawi
Emmanuel Souza, University of Malawi
Boniface Dulani, Institute of Public Opinion and Research
Georges Reniers, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Malebogo Tlhajoane, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Background: In this research, we present our findings on adult mortality estimates obtained through a national mobile phone survey conducted in Malawi. Methods: The data used in this study were collected during the Malawi RaMMPS study, which spanned from January 2022 to June 2023. In order to assess adult mortality we constructed parental survival histories where respondents reported on the survival status of their parents. The survival histories were then subjected to analysis using the demogsurv package in R. Results: Our analytical results reveal a notable increase in adult deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021-2022) compared to the period prior to the pandemic (2018-2019).The mortality estimates also align closely with data from the 2018 Malawi Population Census. Conclusion: These findings underscore the potential of mobile phone surveys as a valuable and timely means of collecting demographic data in countries where civil registration and vital statistics systems are absent or inadequate.