In particular, the further back in time the infant death occurred, the less likely it was to be reported. The recall period of this survey, 2·7 years, was longer than most surveys of crude mortality. Thus, infant deaths from earlier periods might be under-reported, and recent infant deaths might be more readily reported, producing an apparent but spurious increase in infant mortality. We do not think that this is a major factor in this survey for two reasons. First, the preconflict infant mortality rate (29 deaths per 1000 livebirths) we recorded is similar to estimates from neighbouring countries.

That's interesting. They say that the pre-war death rates were not higher than in neighboring countries. Does that mean the old figures about the effect of the sanctions were inflated?

They rely nearly exclusively upon self reports for data gathering. As a commentary in the Lancet says: ...clearly the potential for recall bias among those interviewed.

Wolfgang