IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v50y2013i1p207-228.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adult Mortality From Sibling Survival Data: A Reappraisal of Selection Biases

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Masquelier

Abstract

Because of incomplete registration of deaths in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, data on the survival of close relatives constitute the cornerstone of estimates of adult mortality. Since 1990, sibling histories have been widely collected in Demographic and Health Surveys and are increasingly being relied upon to estimate both general and maternal mortality. Until recently, the use of sibling histories was thought to lead to underestimates of mortality, but a more optimistic view in the literature emerged with the development by Gakidou and King (Demography 43:569–585, 2006 ) of corrections for selection biases. Based on microsimulations, this article shows that Gakidou and King’s weighting scheme has been incorrectly applied to survey data, leading to overestimates of mortality, especially for males. The evidence for an association between mortality and sibship size in adulthood is reviewed. Female mortality appears to decline slightly with the number of surviving sisters, although this could be an artifact of severe recall errors in larger sibships or familial clustering of deaths. Under most circumstances, corrections for selection biases should have only a modest effect on sibling estimates. Copyright Population Association of America 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Masquelier, 2013. "Adult Mortality From Sibling Survival Data: A Reappraisal of Selection Biases," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(1), pages 207-228, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:50:y:2013:i:1:p:207-228
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-012-0149-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13524-012-0149-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13524-012-0149-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D. de Walque & P. Verwimp, 2010. "The Demographic and Socio-economic Distribution of Excess Mortality during the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 19(2), pages 141-162, March.
    2. Emmanuela Gakidou & Gary King, 2006. "Death by survey: Estimating adult mortality without selection bias from sibling survival data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(3), pages 569-585, August.
    3. Ian Timæus & Momodou Jasseh, 2004. "Adult mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from demographic and health surveys," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(4), pages 757-772, November.
    4. Lundberg, Olle, 1993. "The impact of childhood living conditions on illness and mortality in adulthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1047-1052, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dennis M. Feehan & Mary Mahy & Matthew J. Salganik, 2017. "The Network Survival Method for Estimating Adult Mortality: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in Rwanda," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(4), pages 1503-1528, August.
    2. Stéphane Helleringer & Gilles Pison & Almamy Kanté & Géraldine Duthé & Armelle Andro, 2014. "Reporting Errors in Siblings’ Survival Histories and Their Impact on Adult Mortality Estimates: Results From a Record Linkage Study in Senegal," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 387-411, April.
    3. Kirsten Stoebenau & Sangeetha Madhavan & Emily Smith‐Greenaway & Heide Jackson, 2021. "Economic Inequality and Divergence in Family Formation in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 887-912, December.
    4. Iñaki Permanyer & Jeroen Spijker & Amand Blanes & Elisenda Renteria, 2018. "Longevity and Lifespan Variation by Educational Attainment in Spain: 1960–2015," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2045-2070, December.
    5. Kenneth Hill & Peter Johnson & Kavita Singh & Anthony Amuzu-Pharin & Yagya Kharki, 2018. "Using census data to measure maternal mortality: A review of recent experience," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(11), pages 337-364.
    6. Andrea Verhulst, 2016. "Child mortality estimation: An assessment of summary birth history methods using microsimulation," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(39), pages 1075-1128.
    7. Bruno Schoumaker & Cris Beauchemin, 2015. "Reconstructing trends in international migration with three questions in household surveys," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(35), pages 983-1030.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:bpj:pepspp:v:18:y:2012:i:3:p:12:n:15 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Damien De Walque & Deon Filmer, 2013. "Trends and Socioeconomic Gradients in Adult Mortality around the Developing World," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 39(1), pages 1-29, March.
    3. De Walque Damien & Filmer Deon, 2012. "The Socioeconomic Distribution of Adult Mortality during Conflicts in Africa," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(3), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Stéphane Helleringer & Gilles Pison & Almamy Kanté & Géraldine Duthé & Armelle Andro, 2014. "Reporting Errors in Siblings’ Survival Histories and Their Impact on Adult Mortality Estimates: Results From a Record Linkage Study in Senegal," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 387-411, April.
    5. Isabel Günther & Kenneth Harttgen, 2010. "Deadly Cities? A Note on Spatial Inequalities in Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 52, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    6. Belgi Turan, 2020. "Life expectancy and economic development: Evidence from microdata," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 949-972, August.
    7. Emily Oster, 2012. "Routes Of Infection: Exports And Hiv Incidence In Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(5), pages 1025-1058, October.
    8. Dennis M. Feehan & Mary Mahy & Matthew J. Salganik, 2017. "The Network Survival Method for Estimating Adult Mortality: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in Rwanda," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(4), pages 1503-1528, August.
    9. Oster Emily, 2010. "Estimating HIV Prevalence and Incidence in Africa from Mortality Data," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-46, September.
    10. D. de Walque & P. Verwimp, 2010. "The Demographic and Socio-economic Distribution of Excess Mortality during the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 19(2), pages 141-162, March.
    11. Marion Mercier & Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke & Philip Verwimp, 2016. "Violence exposure and welfare over time: Evidence from the Burundi civil war," HiCN Working Papers 198 updated, Households in Conflict Network.
    12. Tilman Br�ck & Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp & Andrew Tedesco & Alexandra Avdeenko, 2013. "Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys," HiCN Working Papers 153, Households in Conflict Network.
    13. repec:pri:rpdevs:vogl_family_size is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Mäkinen, Tomi & Laaksonen, Mikko & Lahelma, Eero & Rahkonen, Ossi, 2006. "Associations of childhood circumstances with physical and mental functioning in adulthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 1831-1839, April.
    15. Alison B. Comfort, 2016. "Long-term effect of in utero conditions on maternal survival later in life: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 493-527, April.
    16. La Mattina, Giulia, 2017. "Civil conflict, domestic violence and intra-household bargaining in post-genocide Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 168-198.
    17. Serneels , Pieter & Verpoorten , Marijke, 2012. "The impact of armed conflict on economic performance. Evidence from Rwanda," NEPS Working Papers 5/2012, Network of European Peace Scientists.
    18. repec:lic:licosd:29111 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Klara Gurzo & Bitte Modin & Pekka Martikainen & Olof Östergren, 2022. "Pathways from Childhood Economic Conditions to Adult Mortality in a 1953 Stockholm Cohort: The Intermediate Role of Personal Attributes and Socioeconomic Career," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-15, June.
    20. Hanna Alastalo & Mikaela B von Bonsdorff & Katri Räikkönen & Anu-Katriina Pesonen & Clive Osmond & David J P Barker & Kati Heinonen & Eero Kajantie & Johan G Eriksson, 2013. "Early Life Stress and Physical and Psychosocial Functioning in Late Adulthood," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(7), pages 1-8, July.
    21. Jason Thomas & Samuel J. Clark, 2011. "More on the Cohort-Component Model of Population Projection in the Context of HIV/AIDS: A Leslie Matrix Representation and New Estimates," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(2), pages 39-102.
    22. B. Grinde, 2002. "Happiness in the Perspective of Evolutionary Psychology," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 331-354, December.
    23. Martin, Leslie R. & Friedman, Howard S. & Clark, Kathleen M. & Tucker, Joan S., 2005. "Longevity following the experience of parental divorce," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 2177-2189, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:50:y:2013:i:1:p:207-228. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.