There is an increasing focus on reducing inequalities in health outcomes in developing countries. Subnational variation is of particular interest, with geographic data used to understand the spatial risk of detrimental outcomes and to identify who is at greatest risk. While some health surveys provide observations with associated geographic coordinates, many others provide data that have their locations masked and instead only report the strata within which the data resides. How to harmonize these data sources for spatial analysis has seen previously considered though no method has been agreed upon and comparison of the validity of methods are lacking. In this paper, we present a new method for analyzing masked survey data alongside traditional geolocated data, using a method that is consistent with the data generating process. Read the full article [here](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0962280220988742).
Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Read the full article [here](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1545-0).
Improving survival and extending the longevity of life for all populations requires timely, robust evidence on local mortality levels and trends. The Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study (GBD 2015) provides a comprehensive assessment of all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015. Read the full article [here](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673616310121).