Estimates of maternal mortality worldwide between 1990 and 2005: an assessment of available data

Estimates of maternal mortality worldwide between 1990 and 2005: an assessment of available data

Summary Background Maternal mortality, as a largely avoidable cause of death, is an important focus of international development efforts, and a target for Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5. However, data weaknesses have made monitoring progress problematic. In 2006, a new maternal mortality workin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 2007-10, Vol.370 (9595), p.1311-1319
Main Authors: Hill, Kenneth, Prof, Thomas, Kevin, Prof, AbouZahr, Carla, MSc, Walker, Neff, PhD, Say, Lale, MD, Inoue, Mie, MA, Suzuki, Emi, PhD
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Data collection
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Deaths
Estimates
Female
Global Health
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Internal Medicine
Maternal Mortality - trends
Middle income
Mortality
Pregnancy
Ratios
Research methodology
Resource allocation
Womens health
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Summary:Summary Background Maternal mortality, as a largely avoidable cause of death, is an important focus of international development efforts, and a target for Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5. However, data weaknesses have made monitoring progress problematic. In 2006, a new maternal mortality working group was established to develop improved estimation methods and make new estimates of maternal mortality for 2005, and to analyse trends in maternal mortality since 1990. Methods We developed and used a range of methods, depending on the type of data available, to produce comparable country, regional, and global estimates of maternal mortality ratios for 2005 and to assess trends between 1990 and 2005. Findings We estimate that there were 535 900 maternal deaths in 2005, corresponding to a maternal mortality ratio of 402 (uncertainty bounds 216–654) deaths per 100 000 livebirths. Most maternal deaths in 2005 were concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa (270 500, 50%) and Asia (240 600, 45%). For all countries with data, there was a decrease of 2·5% per year in the maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2005 (p
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X