Mozambique Neonatal Illness Severity and Careseeking Data from VASA Studies

A dataset analyzing caregiver perception of illness severity and formal healthcare seeking for neonates and infants in Mozambique. It was created by Henry D. Kalter using data from seven verbal and social autopsy (VASA) studies conducted in Africa and Asia, and was last updated in May 2026. The dataset includes a 2-sign method and a multiple sign method for classifying illness severity.

Use Cases

• Classifying neonatal illness severity based on activity level and feeding behavior as described in the 2-sign method.
• Analyzing the relationship between caregivers' perception of illness severity and formal healthcare seeking during fatal illnesses.
• Investigating covariates of careseeking, such as child age and illness type, across different African countries as mentioned in the multivariate analysis.
• Developing behavior change messages to encourage careseeking for moderate illness signs in neonates.

Strengths

• Data is derived from seven distinct VASA studies, providing a multi-country perspective.
• Includes validated methods (2-sign and multiple sign) for classifying illness severity in neonates and infants.
• Multivariate analysis results, including adjusted odds ratios and confidence intervals, are provided in the description.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• The dataset is very small at 89.5 KB, indicating a limited scope of records.

Provenance

Source

Henry D. Kalter via figshare.

Collection Method

Derived from seven verbal and social autopsy (VASA) studies conducted in Africa and Asia.

Time Range

The studies' time range is not specified in the input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 17:46:41; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Primarily Mozambique, with data drawn from studies in Africa and Asia.