Globally, childhood and adolescent deaths have drastically come down in 2015 when compared to deaths in the 90’s.

A composite indicator of income, education and fertility called a Sociodemographic Index (SDI) was developed for each geographic unit.
Included among the most common causes of death globally were neonatal preterm birth complications, lower respiratory tract infections, diarrheal deaths, congenital anomalies, malaria, neonatal sepsis, meningitis and HIV and AIDS, according to the report.
Countries with lower SDIs had a greater share of the burden of death in 2015 compared with 1990, while the most deaths among children and adolescents occurred in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The report speculates one reason for growing inequality of disease among children and adolescents may be that geographical areas with the lowest SDIs have historically not received significant development assistance for health.
Limitations of the study include variations in the availability and quality of data.
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