Modeling Age Patterns of under-5 Mortality by Detailed Age in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Andrea Verhulst, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Julio E. Romero-Prieto, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Michel Guillot, University of Pennsylvania & INED

We propose a model for summarizing regularities about how under-5 mortality is distributed by detailed age groups –including weeks, months, and trimesters– in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. The model fills an important gap in the existing literature on model life tables by focusing on countries that depart from the historical mortality experience of high-income countries. We use Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to update the log-quadratic model of under-five mortality developed recently by Guillot et al. (2022). This update allows to dramatically improve the monitoring of mortality as well as the evaluation and correction of deficient data in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.