Pison G. auteur aut IRD Masquelier B. auteur aut IRD Kante A.M. auteur aut IRD Ndiaye C.T. auteur aut IRD Douillot L. auteur aut IRD Duthé G. auteur aut IRD Sokhna Cheikh auteur aut IRD Delaunay Valérie auteur aut IRD Helleringer S. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access Background: In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), data on causes of death is often inaccurate or incomplete. In this paper, we test whether adding a few questions about injuries and accidents to mortality questionnaires used in representative household surveys would yield accurate estimates of the extent of mortality due to external causes (accidents, homicides, or suicides). Methods: We conduct a validation study in Niakhar (Senegal), during which we compare reported survey data to high-quality prospective records of deaths collected by a health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS). Results: Survey respondents more frequently list the deaths of their adult siblings who die of external causes than the deaths of those who die from other causes. The specificity of survey data is high, but sensitivity is low. Among reported deaths, less than 60% of the deaths classified as due to external causes by the HDSS are also classified as such by survey respondents. Survey respondents better report deaths due to road-traffic accidents than deaths from suicides and homicides. Conclusions: Asking questions about deaths resulting from injuries and accidents during surveys might help measure mortality from external causes in LMICs, but the resulting data displays systematic bias in a rural population of Senegal. Future studies should 1) investigate whether similar biases also apply in other settings and 2) test new methods to further improve the accuracy of survey data on mortality from external causes. specialized DEMOGRAPHIE MORTALITE POPULATION RURALE ENQUETE METHODOLOGIE CAUSE DE DECES SENEGAL 108DEMOG1 056SOCSAN 38 art. no 32 879-896 2018 1435-9871 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010071513 10.4054/DemRes.2018.38.32 1435-9871 [F B010071513] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010071513 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers18-04/010071513.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2018-04-11 2023-07-11 fdi:010071513 fre