Mortality Surveillance Methods & Strategies

Reliable and timely information on cause-specific mortality is a critical part of identifying emerging health problems and a fundamental component of evidence-based health policy development, implementation, and evaluation. Efforts to measure population-level impact of global epidemics, including HIV/AIDS, and develop effective responses are complicated by a lack of dependable mortality data in countries with the highest burden of disease.

After successfully completing this course, learners will be able to:

• List reasons for using mortality surveillance data
• Describe prominent models for obtaining mortality surveillance data
• Understand the advantages and limitations of each collection type and begin to identify which work best under certain circumstances
• Understand the uses of mortality surveillance data in developing and evaluating programs and/or policies
• Recount examples of successful collection of mortality surveillance data