Full Member HDSS

MEIRU HDSS & LTC

MEIRU HDSS & LTC is a HDSS based in Malawi.

Data access & collaboration Visit cohort site

Population: 110,000
Established: 2002
Setting: Mixed
Unit of observation: Individuals and Households

Rural Karonga District in Northern Malawi. Urban Area 25 in Lilongwe. Central Malawi · Malawi Cohort site Malawi

About the cohort

The Karonga Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Karonga HDSS) in northern rural Malawi and Lilongwe Area 25 Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Lilongwe HDSS) aim to have 110000 population under surveillance and currently have 93 000 individuals under continuous demographic surveillance since completion of a baseline census (2002-2004) for Karonga HDSS and (2022-2024) for Lilongwe HDSS.

Read full cohort description

The surveillance systems collect data on vital events, monthly in both rural and urban, and migration for individuals and for households every year in the rural, and every four months for households and every year for individual in the urban. It also provides data on cause-specific mortality obtained by verbal autopsy for all age groups.

The HDSS provides a structure for surveys of socio-economic status and sampling frame for nested epidemiological studies including rounds of non-communicable diseases surveys. Uniquely, it relies on a network of village key informants to report vital events and household moves, and furthermore is linked to an archive of biological samples and data from population surveys and other studies dating back four decades for the rural