BMJ  2008;336:1446-1447 (28 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.a146 (published 19 June 2008)

Editorials

Measuring deaths from conflict

New method is promising but is still likely to underestimate deaths

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the linked study, Obermeyer and colleagues challenge conventional thinking about deaths related to war and force us to re-evaluate some well established assumptions about these deaths.1 Deaths in combatants and non-combatants are always underestimated during conflicts between armed groups in poor countries that are not national armies.2 Even in middle income developing countries, counts that are purported to be precise fail to include most of those killed.3 4

Obermeyer and colleagues used demographic data from world health surveys collected before and after conflicts in 13 countries over the past 50 years. The surveys collect information from one respondent for each household about sibling deaths, including whether the deaths were related to war. The data are then compared with those obtained through passive reports (mainly from eyewitnesses and the media). This method eliminates some of the ambiguity rampant in this highly politicised field.

Obermeyer and colleagues estimate that 5.4 million (95% . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Garfield, Henrik Bendixen professor of clinical international nursing

1 School of Nursing, Columbia University, Box 6, New York City, NY 10032, USA

rmg3@columbia.edu


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Relevant Article

Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme
Ziad Obermeyer, Christopher J L Murray, and Emmanuela Gakidou
BMJ 2008 336: 1482-1486. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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