Retrospective determination of whether famine existed in Niger 2005: two stage cluster survey

摘要

>Objective To apply the famine scale by Howe and Devereux to the situation in Niger, west Africa, in 2005 to retrospectively determine whether famine existed.>Design Two stage cluster survey.>Setting Survey of households in each of Niger’s eight regions.>Participants 4003 households.>Main outcome measures Crude mortality, mortality in children under 5, and the proportion of caregivers both nationally and regionally adopting coping strategies to deal with insufficient food needs.>Results The estimated national crude mortality rate was 0.4 (0.4 to 0.5) deaths per 10 000 per day and under 5 mortality rate was 1.7 (1.4 to 1.9) deaths per 10 000 per day. Nationally, 22.3% (95% confidence interval 19.9% to 24.8%) of caregivers of under 5s did not resort to any coping strategies to deal with insufficient food needs. Reversible coping strategies were, however, used by 5.8% (4.7% to 7.0%) of caregivers, whereas 49.4% (46.9% to 51.8%) relied on irreversible coping strategies and 22.6% (20.0% to 25.4%) on survival strategies.>Conclusion On the basis of the famine scale proposed by Howe and Devereux, most regions in Niger experienced food crisis conditions and some areas approached famine proportions.