Brief Biography

Diego Bassani is a scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children and an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Bassani received an M.Sc and a PhD in epidemiology from the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil. He has conducted important research on the causes and distribution of child deaths in India, identification of risk factors for child mortality and impact of policy changes on child health, survival and development. Bassani currently works in international projects in maternal and child health epidemiology in collaboration with the Centre for Epidemiological Research in Pelotas, Brazil, with the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University and with Saving Newborn Lives in South Africa and Uganda. He is also part of the Child Health and Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG), chaired by Dr. Robert Black, responsible for the global estimates of neonatal and child deaths.

Research Interests

• Global maternal and child health research
• Measurement issues in health status
• Mortality
• Coverage of interventions and policies

External Funding

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 
• Grand Challenges Canada 
• Johns Hopkins University 
• UNICEF 
• USAID

Achievements

• 2011 Canadian Rising Stars in Global Health

Publications

Diarrhea, pneumonia, and infectious disease mortality in children aged 5 to 14 years in India. Morris SK, Bassani DG, Awasthi S, Kumar R, Shet A, Suraweera W, Jha P; MDS Collaborators. PLoS One. 2011;6(5):e20119. Epub 2011 May 24.

Trends in selective abortions of girls in India: analysis of nationally representative birth histories from 1990 to 2005 and census data from 1991 to 2011. Jha P, Kesler MA, Kumar R, Ram F, Ram U, Aleksandrowicz L, Bassani DG, Chandra S, Banthia JK.Lancet. 2011 Jun 4;377(9781):1921-8. Epub 2011 May 25.

Unintentional injury deaths among children younger than 5 years of age in India: a nationally representative study. Jagnoor J, Bassani DG, Keay L, Ivers RQ, Thakur JS, Gururaj G, Jha P; Million Death Study Collaborators. Inj Prev. 2011 Jun;17(3):151-5. Epub 2011 Apr 14.

Capturing the context of maternal deaths from verbal autopsies: a reliability study of the maternal data extraction tool (M-DET). Montgomery AL, Morris SK, Kumar R, Jotkar R, Mony P, Bassani DG, Jha P. PLoS One. 2011 Feb 7;6(2):e14637.

Causes of neonatal and child mortality in India: a nationally representative mortality survey. Bassani DG, Kumar R, Awasthi S, Morris SK, Paul VK, Shet A, Ram U, Gaffey MF, Black RE, Jha P. Lancet. 2010 Nov 27;376(9755):1853-60. Epub 2010 Nov 12.

Child mortality from solid-fuel use in India: a nationally-representative case-control study. Bassani DG, Jha P, Dhingra N, Kumar R. BMC Public Health. 2010 Aug 17;10:491.

Adult and child malaria mortality in India: a nationally representative mortality survey. Dhingra N, Jha P, Sharma VP, Cohen AA, Jotkar RM, Rodriguez PS, Bassani DG, Suraweera W, Laxminarayan R, Peto R; Million Death Study Collaborators. Lancet. 2010 Nov 20;376(9754):1768-74. Epub 2010 Oct 20.

Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2008: a systematic analysis. Black RE, Cousens S, Johnson HL, Lawn JE, Rudan I, Bassani DG, Jha P, Campbell H, Walker CF, Cibulskis R, Eisele T, Liu L, Mathers C; Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group of WHO and UNICEF. Lancet. 2010 Jun 5;375(9730):1969-87. Epub 2010 May 11.

Factors associated with physician agreement on verbal autopsy of over 27000 childhood deaths in India. Morris SK, Bassani DG, Kumar R, Awasthi S, Paul VK, Jha P. PLoS One. 2010 Mar 8;5(3):e9583.

HIV mortality and infection in India: estimates from nationally representative mortality survey of 1.1 million homes. Jha P, Kumar R, Khera A, Bhattacharya M, Arora P, Gajalakshmi V, Bhatia P, Kam D, Bassani DG, Sullivan A, Suraweera W, McLaughlin C, Dhingra N, Nagelkerke N; Million Death Study Collaborators. BMJ. 2010 Feb 23;340:c621. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c621.

Gender inequity and age-appropriate immunization coverage in India from 1992 to 2006. Corsi DJ, Bassani DG, Kumar R, Awasthi S, Jotkar R, Kaur N, Jha P. BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2009 Oct 14;9 Suppl 1:S3.

Child sexual abuse in southern Brazil and associated factors: a population-based study. Bassani DG, Palazzo LS, Béria JU, Gigante LP, Figueiredo AC, Aerts DR, Raymann BC. BMC Public Health. 2009 May 11;9:133.

Inadequate use of prenatal services among Brazilian women: the role of maternal characteristics. Bassani DG, Surkan PJ, Olinto MT. Int Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2009 Mar;35(1):15-20.

Estimating the number of children exposed to parental psychiatric disorders through a national health survey. Bassani DG, Padoin CV, Philipp D, Veldhuizen S.Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2009 Feb 19;3(1):6.