A verbal/social autopsy study to improve estimates of the causes and determinants of neonatal and child mortality in Nigeria

The Verbal and Social Autopsy (VASA) Survey is the first of its kind to be implemented by the National Population Commission (NPC), and the first of its kind in Nigeria. As a follow up of the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2013) VASA is a national sample survey in which NDHS households with recent death of children under age 5 were revisited. Questions were canvassed for estimates of the cause distributions of death separately for neonates (0-27 days old) and young children (1-59 months old) in the northern and southern zones of Nigeria; the proportions of deaths, by cause, of neonates and young children that occur in hospital in the two zones; and the prevalence of social/behavioural factors contributing to death of neonates and young children in those zones. In all cases there were estimates also at the national level.