Mortality effect
deaths
The hypotheses in terms of mortality effect are as follows:There are fewer deaths per 1000 PYRs among 4–14-month-old infants in clusters where 1–11-month-old-infants are treated with two-dose AZI MDA than in villages where 1–11-month infants are treated with respective placebo.There are fewer deaths per 1000 PYRs among 4–14-month-old infants in clusters where 1–11-month-old-infants are treated with four-dose AZI MDA than in villages where 1–11-month infants are treated with respective placebo.There are fewer deaths per 1000 PYRs among 4–14-month-old infants in clusters where 1–11-month-old-infants are treated with four-dose AZI MDA than in villages where 1–11-month infants are treated with two-dose AZI MDA.In addition to the aforementioned, we will conduct exploratory analyses to assess mortality among children who were 12–59 months old when the latest AZI MDA took place in their village of residence and who had not been eligible to receive azithromycin on previous MDA visits.For hypothesis generating purposes, we will carry out exploratory analysis to investigate whether the following selected variables modified the effect of the MDA intervention on the mortality and growth outcomes:◦ Age at the time of MDA◦ Sex of the child◦ LAZ◦ WAZ◦ WLZ◦ Seasonality: rainy season vs non-rainy season◦ SMC given in village◦ Cluster level coverage of SMC (in %)◦ Cluster level baseline mortality (established at MDA 1)◦ Cluster level coverage of AZI MDA◦ Individual level coverage and the number of administered AZI doses◦ District of residence◦ Distance from the nearest health facility (in km)◦ Household asset index◦ Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) indexThe household asset index and WASH index will be developed by principal component analysis. The component that explains the largest proportion of variance from household assets and WASH questionnaires will be used as the indices [