Many experts and expert groups from a range of fields are attempting to combine their knowledge to understand the lethality to Iraqis of the invasion and post-invasion violence in Iraq.
This is a slightly abridged and amended version of an invited "meta-analysis" of IBC's potential contribution to that understanding, presented in a closed meeting of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on mortality estimates for Iraq, convened by WHO in Geneva, May 2007.
Age: a potential source of bias
Adult to child proportions in:
| Source (& child definition) | Adult % | Child % |
| MoH (0-12 yrs) | 97% | 3% |
| Burnham et al. (0-14 yrs) | 91% | 9% |
| ILCS (0-17 yrs) | 88% | 12% |
| IBC (0-17 yrs) | 89% | 11% |
There is considerable work still to be undertaken on assessing bias. We give one example here of the kind of comparison that is possible. A number of research studies report the proportion of adults to children killed in their data-sets. The table above shows four such studies, including IBC. First are the cumulative data supplied by the Iraqi Ministry of Health (MoH), as provided to the Los Angeles Times (June 2006), second is the 2006 mortality survey by Burnham et al as published in the medical journal Lancet (October 2006), and third is the 2004 UNDP-funded Iraq Living Conditions Survey (ILCS). IBC data show proportions of child deaths (around 10% of the total) which are very similar to the proportions derived in the other studies.