Importance of Appropriate and Reliable Population Data in Developing Regions to Understand Epidemiology of Diseases

Many developing countries lack a reliable resident registration system, resulting in difficult challenges in understanding health status of a population. Attempts have been made to establish an efficient system in developing countries, particularly in rural areas. WHO reported that only five African countries had vital registration systems covering more than 25% of their population. Such attempts made to bridge the gap include verbal autopsy tools within the HDSS program, the tools to capture causes of death guided by WHO principles of determining causes of death, where elaborated systems for defining causes of deaths do not exist. In addition, observational and interventional studies can be conducted within an established HDSS platform. The idea of HDSS originated from the concept of a prospective community study (PCS), which was aiming at prospective and logical observation of a community, to carry out demographic, public health and other research activities. HDSS is used as platform for other research activities. Further, platforms have been developed for data sharing within and HDSSs of the world managed by the INDEPTH Network (International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health in Developing Countries).