The National Population Commission (NPC) says it will soon commence the 2019 Verbal and Social Autopsy (VASA) Survey in 13 local government areas of the state.
The commission’s Director in Lagos State, Mr Murphy Adigun, made this known on Wednesday at a news conference in Lagos.
Adigun said that the selected councils include Ikeja; Oshodi/Isolo; Surulere; Mushin; Alimosho; Kosofe; Ibeju Lekki; Apapa; Ajeromi; Amuwo Odofin; Ojo and Badagry.
He said aim of the survey was to obtain data that would assist policy makers to formulate policies in relation to maternal and child health.
The NPC director said that the survey would be carried out in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and other key ministries, departments and agencies.
According to him, data generated from the selected council areas will provide information for the state government to make sustainable policies and programmes to reduce infant mortality in the state.
“The VASA survey is a research study that seeks to obtain data to determine the cause and contributory factors to deaths among children aged zero to five years old.
“Objectives of the survey include the provision of up-to-date information on early childhood mortality rate.
“Others are cultural/behavioural/social and health system factors responsible for neonatal, that is deaths of live-born infants within the first 28 days of life, infant and under-five mortality using 2018 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) households,” he said.
The director said that the most common causes of neonatal deaths in Nigeria were preterm birth and birth asphyxia, which included infections such as septicemia, pneumonia and meningitis.
He said that other causes were tetanus, religious beliefs, malformations, socio-cultural practices, age and socioeconomic status, among others.
“As a follow up to the 2018 NDHS, one randomly selected death in a household with an under-five death sampled from the NDHS.
“A total of 3,215 under-five mortality cases were selected nationwide out of which 31 per cent, that is, 974 are neonates, while 69 per cent, 2,241 are children.
“Under-five mortality in Nigeria is very high with an average of 132 deaths per 1, 000 births.
“The regional spread of the occurrence of death during the period indicate that 614, that is, 20 per cent of the total deaths were in the Southern part of the country, while 2, 601, that is 80 per cent, occurred in the North respectively,” he said.
Adigun, however, called on members of the public to give all necessary support toward the success of the exercise.
