CHDS faculty Zachary Ward and Sue J. Goldie and colleagues compared country-specific maternal mortality estimates for 2020 from three models in a recent eClinical Medicine article: those from the United Nations (UN) Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-agency Group, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project, and the Global Maternal Health (GMatH) model.
These models were all developed to address data limitations around maternal mortality, such as inadequate data availability and under-reporting or misclassification of maternal deaths, but the modelling methods differ.
The UN and GBD studies use aggregate regression models to estimate cross-sectional associations between country-level factors and levels of maternal mortality, with gross domestic product the largest driver of estimated trends. The GMatH model is a microsimulation model based on a system of causal components and their relationships. It simulates the reproductive lifecourse of individual women, allowing for the integration of data from multiple sources and accounting for uncertainty due to underreporting of maternal deaths.
The study compared model estimates for country-level maternal mortality indicators for the three models to identify areas of convergence and divergence, and discussed possible reasons for the latter. Identifying where and why models diverge helps to identify gaps in empirical data and differences in model assumptions. These comparisons also identify implications for data collection and policies to reduce maternal deaths.
Learn more: Read the full article, Assessing Differences in Country-level Estimates of Maternal Mortality: A Comparison of GMatH, UN and GBD Model Results for 2020
Learn more: Explore the website for the Global Maternal Health (GMatH) model
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