IHME IMPACT INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION
ISSUE 4 / FALL 2011
BENEATH THE SURFACE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
2 The Director’s View
Dr. Christopher Murray underlines the importance of research such as the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010
3 Deep Dive
IHME researchers explore the latest trends in breast and cervical cancer around the world
4 Connections
New fellows and faculty join IHME; partnerships pursue progress in health equity
7 Innovations
IHME’s recently published work examines HIV prevention, changing life expectancies, malaria reduction, and more
10 Out and About
Discover where IHME has been in the last couple of months in this roundup of events
11 Ripple Effect
HME research prompts action from public health officials
For more information, please visit IHME’s website: www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org or contact us at comms@healthmetricsandevaluation.org or +1-206-897-2800 ©Copyright IHME 2011
New data and methods enable more comprehensive picture of Millennium Development Goal progress When 189 countries adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, to reduce needless deaths among mothers and children among the goals, targets that seemed ambitious for many are now within reach. IHME’s latest research on maternal and child mortality trends suggests countries are approaching health-related goals for women and children at a faster pace than they were previously. IHME used a welter of updated data—and new methods for analyzing country-level data from the past few decades—and found some encouraging news: More than half of the countries in the world are lowering the death rates of children under age 5, and the death rate of women due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has also been decreasing. Most notably, improvement in both of these areas is happening at an accelerated pace. The study, conducted by IHME with the University of Queensland, Australia, assessed progress on MDG 4, which calls for the death rate of children under age 5 to be reduced by two-thirds by 2015, and MDG 5, with the goal of reducing by threequarters the ratio of maternal deaths, which is the number of women per 100,000 live births who die as a result of child-bearing and obstetric complications. Policymakers have been concerned in recent years about slow progress in saving women’s lives and improving child survival. Researchers relied on new data that allow for detailed tracking of progress over time: surveys, censuses, vital registration, and verbal autopsies, or interviews with family members to determine a relative’s cause
of death in places lacking vital registration information. Their detailed analysis showed that 31 countries appear to be on track to reduce their rate of child mortality by twothirds, while 13 will meet the goal of reducing the maternal death ratio by two-thirds by the target date. Of those countries, nine are on target to achieve both goals: China, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Maldives, Mongolia, Peru, Syria, and Tunisia. Dr. Alan Lopez, Head of the University of Queensland School of Population Health and one of the report’s co-authors, emphasized that other countries can learn from this progress. Another author of the study, Dr. Haidong Wang, Assistant Professor of Global Health at IHME, agreed, stating that the richness of the data helps to “identify where bottlenecks in implementation may be occurring.” Wang noted that closer attention to prenatal and postnatal care and safe motherhood practices
Continued on page 2
1