Gridded birth and pregnancy datasets for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Understanding the fine scale spatial distribution of births and pregnancies is crucial for informing planning decisions related to public health. This is especially important in lower income countries where infectious disease is a major concern for pregnant women and new-borns, as highlighted by the recent Zika virus epidemic. Despite this, the spatial detail of basic data on the numbers and distribution of births and pregnancies is often of a coarse resolution and difficult to obtain, with no co-ordination between countries and organisations to create one consistent set of subnational estimates. To begin to address this issue, under the framework of the WorldPop program, an open access archive of high resolution gridded birth and pregnancy distribution datasets for all African, Latin America and Caribbean countries has been created. Datasets were produced using the most recent and finest level census and official population estimate data available and are at a resolution of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 km at the equator). All products are available through WorldPop.

The influence of distance and quality on utilisation of birthing services at health facilities in Eastern Region, Ghana

“…The spatial distribution of potential demand for obstetric care was quantified using a gridded (100×100 m) map layer of estimated pregnancy for 2015 21 22. The WorldPop programme generated these estimates by redistributing census-derived number of pregnancies for electoral areas down to grid cells based on land cover and settlement extents derived from satellite imagery.…”

Incorporating hydrology into climate suitability models changes projections of malaria transmission in Africa

“…Gridded estimates of the human population in Africa were used to evaluate the number of individuals falling within areas climatically suitable for malaria transmission. The analysis was performed for the total population 48 and for children aged under 5 years of age 49 as this group is particularly susceptible 1,50 . All population datasets were at a resolution of 30 arc seconds (~1 km at the equator) with results aggregated to the continental and country level.…”

How accurate are modelled birth and pregnancy estimates? Comparison of four models using high resolution maternal health census data in southern Mozambique

“…Recent studies have been focusing on methods for improving delineation of urban, suburban and rural areas. These methods are essential in the definition and demarcation of urban, suburban and rural boundaries, which improve the accuracy of estimates that are modelled using the rural/urban classification 35. Methods involving the use of satellite imagery data have proven effective in classifying settlement types.…”

“…Two models of live births and pregnancies were created, using admin 5 level data and the other using admin 3 level data. Births and pregnancy datasets were generated using Worldpop methods highlighted in James et al ,35 with the addition of region-specific data as obtained through the CLIP project, including ASFRs, births-to-pregnancy ratios and number of births, pregnancies and WRA. Spreadsheets of ASFRs for admin 3 and admin 5 were generated by dividing age-specific births by age-specific WRA, while the pregnancy-to-birth multiplier was created for the study region by dividing the total number of pregnancies by total births for each admin 5 unit (and admin 3) and averaging the multipliers to get a value for the whole region.…”