International Journal of Preventive Medicine (Int J Prev Med)2008-780210112020022521962196EN20200225<p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Background</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">Child mortality surveillance system (CMSS) for children aged 1–59 months is a<br />critical issue in the prevention of mortality. This surveillance system like other health programs needs<br />to be evaluated. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate CMSS in Iran. </span></p><p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Methods</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">This evaluation<br />was performed from March 2015 to March 2016 based on selected criteria for assessing the public<br />health surveillance system proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Selected<br />criteria examined in this study included timeliness, simplicity, acceptability, and flexibility. These<br />criteria were evaluated in two ways. First, it included the use of a researcher‑made questionnaire.<br />The questionnaires were completed by 100 experts on CMSS. Second, to perform a more exact<br />evaluation of these criteria, 24 of these experts were selected for the focus group. </span></p><p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Results</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">In<br />this study, the response rate was 91% (42% hospital‑based and 49% primary care‑based). In the<br />timeliness section, 49% of the experts believed that approvals of the child mortality committees<br />have not been sent within the designated time frame; hardware, software, and questionnaires were<br />reported as effective factors in this respect. The structural and administrative problems were effective<br />in simplicity domain and the experts of mortality registration and mood of relatives were effective<br />in acceptability domain. The flexibility of the system was high and appropriate. </span></p><p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Conclusions</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">The<br />findings of the present study reveal that CMSS has some limitations and problems in the timeliness,<br />simplicity, and acceptability criteria, which can be resolved. But this program has an appropriate<br />situation in terms of flexibility.<br /></span></p><p><span class="fontstyle0" style="color: #00652e;"><strong>Keywords</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle3">Child mortality, program evaluation, public health surveillance, Iran</span></p>http://ijpm.mui.ac.ir/index.php/ijpm/article/view/2196http://ijpm.mui.ac.ir/index.php/ijpm/article/download/2196/717718066