Background
Adolescence is generally perceived as being a healthy period of life [1,2]. Particularly in the developing world however the lives of adolescents are being compromised and cut short because of exposure to serious risks they are not adequately equipped to handle [3]. Patton and colleagues estimated that among young people, mortality rates were highest in Africa and Southeast Asia accounting for two-thirds of worldwide deaths among this population [4]. To ascertain the causes of these deaths in our young people, mortality data is needed. As Setel and colleagues argue, mortality data are important for planning, setting priorities and formulating and monitoring policies [5]. The irony is that whereas adolescent mortality data can be accessed from several high income countries, this is not so in developing countries due to the limitation of reliable death registration records. In WHO's Africa region, only 3 countries have vital registration coverage above 85% [6] and Ghana is not one of them. Consequently the weak death registration system limits even the use of death certificates as a major source of cause of death information. This calls for innovative ways of accessing and generating adolescent mortality data particularly from low income countries.