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International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Monitoring adult mortality by type of residence

in the absence of death registration: a perspec-

tive from Burkina Faso

Bruno Yempabou Lankoande

Centre for Demographic Research, Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Place Montesquieu, B-1348,
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Abstract: In the context of the post 2015 agenda, disaggregation of mortality indicators is needed to as-
sess health inequalities within populations. However, producing sub-national estimates of adult mortality
is notably difficult in the absence of death registration. Using Burkina Faso as a case study, this paper
revisits the main avenues to quantify differences in adult mortality between the ages of 15 and 60 accord-
ing to urban/rural residence. Estimates are based on reports on the survival of parents and siblings col-
lected in surveys and in the 2006 census, and compared to levels inferred from recent household deaths or
inferences based on child mortality. Results indicate that in Burkina Faso, adults living in urban areas
still benefit from a health advantage compared to their rural counterparts. Thus, efforts made in reducing
adult mortality in rural settings should be intensified. In terms of methods, this analysis shows the value
of asking additional questions about the place of residence of close relatives to avoid misclassification
errors. The approach adopted here could be implemented in other countries to facilitate the measurement
of spatial inequalities in health indicators for all ages when monitoring Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).
Keywords: adult mortality, Burkina Faso, indirect techniques, urban, rural, SDGs

*Correspondence to: Bruno Yempabou Lankoande, Centre for Demographic Research, Catholic University of Louvain
(UCL), Place Montesquieu, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Email: yempabou.lankoande@uclouvain.be
Received: September 3, 2015; Accepted: October 16, 2015; Published Online: October 20, 2015
Citation: Lankoande Y B. (2016). Monitoring adult mortality by type of residence in the absence of death registra-
tion: a perspective from Burkina Faso. International Journal of Population Studies, vol.2(1): 21–37.
http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJPS.2016.01.004.
1 Introduction

Copyright: © 2016 Bruno Historically, European cities were long characterized by higher mortality rates, a phenomena referred
Yempabou Lankoande. This to as the “urban penalty”, while cities in Sub-Saharan Africa have long benefited from a comparative
is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of advantage, due to colonial health policies that were very favorable to large urban centers (Leon,
the Creative Commons Attribu- 2008). As many health determinants (such as education, sanitation, access to health services, and
tion-NonCommercial 4.0 In- wealth) are better on average in urban areas, it is generally assumed that urban residents in
ternational License (http://cr-
eativecommons.org/license- Sub-Saharan Africa benefit from better health conditions compared to their rural counterparts (Leon,
s/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all 2008; Montgomery, 2009). Hence, mortality rates by urban/rural location are regularly monitored to
non-commercial use, distrib- track progress made in reducing the gap in mortality, initially with a focus on rural health, but with a
ution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the origi- particular attention on urban health in recent years (Fink, Günther, and Hill, 2014; Bocquier, Madise,
nal work is properly cited. and Zulu, 2011). Yet, most of these studies were limited on child survival and findings, mainly based

International Journal of Population Studies | 2016, Volume 2, Issue 1 21