Nigeria Infant Health Dataset on Careseeking and Illness Severity

Henry D. Kalter's dataset analyzes the relationship between caregivers' perception of illness severity and formal healthcare seeking for neonates and 1–11-month-olds. It is derived from seven Verbal and Social Autopsy (VASA) studies conducted in Africa and Asia, developing methods to classify illness severity. The dataset was last updated on 2026-05-22 and is shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Modeling predictors of formal healthcare seeking based on caregiver-perceived illness severity.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the 2-sign and multiple sign methods for classifying infant illness severity.
• Analyzing geographic variation in careseeking behaviors across different African countries.
• Investigating the association between child age and the likelihood of seeking care during fatal illnesses.

Strengths

• Derived from seven distinct VASA studies, providing a multi-country perspective.
• Includes specific statistical results, such as adjusted odds ratios for age and illness severity.
• File size is 179.6 KB, indicating a focused and likely manageable dataset.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the source studies in Africa and Asia.

Provenance

Source

Henry D. Kalter, via figshare.

Collection Method

Data compiled from seven Verbal and Social Autopsy (VASA) studies.

Time Range

Time range of the underlying studies is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 17:46:34; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Studies conducted in Africa and Asia; dataset title specifies Nigeria.