High maternal mortality in rural south-west Ethiopia: estimate by using the sisterhood method

Table 1 Maternal mortality estimate using the sisterhood method for the reference period 1998 in rural Bonke, Gamo Gofa, south-west Ethiopia, 2011

Age of respondents	No. of respondents	sisters survived age ≥ 15 yrs	Dead from all causes	Maternal deaths (r)	adjustment factor ( f)	Sisters units exposed to risk (β)	Lifetime risk (Q )
	k	e	C	r	f	β = ef	Q=r/ β
15-19	2443	6471*	428	240	0.107	693	0.346
20-24	1625	4306*	370	152	0.206	887	0.172
25-29	1450	3889	375	152	0.343	1334	0.114
30-34	1235	3135	358	103	0.503	1576	0.065
35-39	812	2201	331	89	0.664	1461	0.061
40-44	523	1397	255	52	0.802	1120	0.046
45-49	415	1074	225	31	0.900	997	0.031
Total	8503	22473	2342	819		8068	0.102

*inflated number of sisters obtained by multiplying the average number of sisters survived for respondents aged 25–49 (which is 2.65 in this data) by the number of respondents in the younger age groups (age 15–19 and 20–24). Originally reported sisters by the young group were: 5425 for aged 15–19 and 4230 for 20–24 years old respondents.

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