ArticlePopulation health metrics2011
An algorithm to assess methodological quality of nutrition and mortality cross-sectional surveys: development and application to surveys conducted in Darfur, Sudan.
Article in Population health metrics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Composite anthropometric data quality index for children under the age of 5 on the Brazilian National Food and Nutrition Surveillance System, 2019-2021.Population health metrics · 2025Article
- Subnational variations in the quality of household survey data in sub-Saharan Africa.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Article
- A method for small-area estimation of population mortality in settings affected by crises.Population health metrics · 2022Article
- Nutrition-Related Mobile Application for Daily Dietary Self-Monitoring.Journal of nutrition and metabolism · 2022Review
- Comparison of anthropometric data quality in children aged 6-23 and 24-59 months: lessons from population-representative surveys from humanitarian settings.BMC nutrition · 2020Article
- Anthropometric data quality assessment in multisurvey studies of child growth.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2020Article
- Change in quality of malnutrition surveys between 1986 and 2015.Emerging themes in epidemiology · 2018Article
- Validity and feasibility of a satellite imagery-based method for rapid estimation of displaced populations.International journal of health geographics · 2013Article
- Implementation and utilisation of community-based mortality surveillance: a case study from Chad.Conflict and health · 2012Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNutrition and mortality surveys are the main tools whereby evidence on the health status of populations affected by disasters and armed conflict is quantified and monitored over time. Several reviews have consistently revealed a lack of rigor in many surveys. We describe an algorithm for analyzing nutritional and mortality survey reports to identify a comprehensive range of errors that may result in sampling, response, or measurement biases and score quality. We apply the algorithm to surveys conducted in Darfur, Sudan.
methodsWe developed an algorithm based on internationally agreed upon methods and best practices. Penalties are attributed for a list of errors, and an overall score is built from the summation of penalties accrued by the survey as a whole. To test the algorithm reproducibility, it was independently applied by three raters on 30 randomly selected survey reports. The algorithm was further applied to more than 100 surveys conducted in Darfur, Sudan.
resultsThe Intra Class Correlation coefficient was 0.79 for mortality surveys and 0.78 for nutrition surveys. The overall median quality score and range of about 100 surveys conducted in Darfur were 0.60 (0.12-0.93) and 0.675 (0.23-0.86) for mortality and nutrition surveys, respectively. They varied between the organizations conducting the surveys, with no major trend over time.
conclusionOur study suggests that it is possible to systematically assess quality of surveys and reveals considerable problems with the quality of nutritional and particularly mortality surveys conducted in the Darfur crisis.
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