Cogprints

A community based cross sectional study on feasibility of lay interviewers in ascertaining causes of adult deaths by using verbal autopsy in rural Wardha

Dongre, AR and Singh, A and Deshmukh, PR and Garg, BS (2009) A community based cross sectional study on feasibility of lay interviewers in ascertaining causes of adult deaths by using verbal autopsy in rural Wardha. [Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)]

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
240Kb

Abstract

Background & objectives: 1) To study the causes of adult (15 years and above) deaths using verbal autopsy (VA) and its socio-demographic characteristics. 2) To study the feasibility of use of the lay interviewer to ascertain causes of adult death using verbal autopsy and a simple algorithm. Methods: The present study was done in Wardha district, Maharashtra, India. Taking into account feasibility, out of 23 villages of Primary Health Centre, Anji, 15 villages were chosen having total population of 14,590. Out of 273 estimated adult deaths during the study period, 209 (77%) could be traced by house to house visit and a lay interviewer, interviewed the close caretakers of the deceased. Both lay interviewer and a physician individually derived their diagnosis using verbal autopsy report and a simplified algorithm. The data was entered and analyzed by using Epi_info 6.04. The inter-observer reliability between the lay interviewer and a physician for each possible diagnosis was assessed by using the Kappa statistics. Considering the diagnosis made by a physician as a gold standard, the diagnostic and predictive accuracy for each diagnosis made by the lay interviewer was calculated. Results: The communicable diseases accounted for 52 percent of the adult deaths while non-communicable for 32 percent and injuries for nine percent deaths. The overall agreement between the lay interviewer and a physician for communicable diseases was found to be good (k = 0.65 + 0.06) and for non-communicable diseases it was found to be excellent (k = 0.80 + 0.06). The lay interviewer using VA performed adequately for individual conditions of public health importance like acute febrile illness, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis and injuries. Interpretation & conclusions: The present study has been successful to demonstrate feasibility of use of the lay interviewer to provide useful information on population-level estimation of broad causes of adult deaths and its socio-demographic characteristics that are reasonably reliable. The study suggests the possible utility of the method for rural India, where the majority of deaths occur at home. Further research work on development of sensitive and specific yet simple algorithms for lay interviewers to ascertain causes of adult deaths is required.

Item Type:Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)
Keywords:Adult deaths, Verbal autopsy, Algorithm, Lay interviewer, Physician review
Subjects:JOURNALS > Online Journal of Health and Allied Sciences
ID Code:6391
Deposited By: Kakkilaya Bevinje, Dr. Srinivas
Deposited On:28 Mar 2009 09:31
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:57

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

1.Ruzicka LT, Lopez AD. The use of cause of death statistics for health situation assessment: national and international experiences. World Health Stat Q 1990; 43(4): 249-258.

2.Huong DL, Minh HV, Byass P. Applying verbal autopsy to determine cause of death in rural Vietnam. Scandinavian J of Public Health 2003;31(62): 19-27.

3.Mertens HR, Lockett G, Rodrigues L. Causes of adult deaths in developing countries: A review of data and methods. Population, Health and Nutrition working papers. WPS 246. Washington DC: World Bank, 1989.

4.Chandramohan D, Maude GH, Rodrigues LC, Hayes RJ. Verbal autopsies for adult deaths: issues in their development and validation. Int J Epidemiol 1994;23(2): 213-22.

5.Gajalakshmi V, Peto R. Verbal autopsy of 80,000 adult deaths in Tamilnadu, South India. BioMed Central Public health 2004;2(7).

6.Lulu K, Berhane Y. The use of simplified verbal autopsy in identifying causes of adult death in a predominantly rural population in Ethiopia. BMC Public Health 2005; Vol5.

7.Garenne M, Fauveau V. Potential and limits of verbal autopsies. Bull of the World Health Organization. 2006;84(3):164.

8.Quigley MA, Chandramohan D, Setel P, Binka F, Rodrigues LC. Validity of data –derived algorithms for ascertaining causes of adult death in two African sites using verbal autopsy. Trop Med Int Health 2000;5(1): 33-9.

9.Quigley MA, Chandramohan D, Rodrigues LC. Diagnostic accuracy of physician review, expert algorithms and data-derived algorithms in adult verbal autopsies. Int J Epidemiol 1999;28(6):1081-7.

10.Yang G, Rao C, Ma J, Wang L, Wan X, Dubrovsky G, Lopez A. Validation of verbal autopsy procedures for adult deaths in China. Int J Epidemiol 2006;(35): 741-48.

11.Sibai AM. Mortality certification and cause of death reporting in developing countries. Bull of the World Health Organization 2004; 82(2):83.

12.Chandramohan D, Maude G, Rodrigues LC, Hayes RJ. Verbal autopsies for adult deaths: their development and validation in a multi-centre study. Tropical Med and Int Health 1998;3(6): 436-46.

13.Registrar General of India. Census of India 2001 [Cited 2006 January 15]. Available from URL: http://www.censusindia.net/data/mah.pdf.

14.Registrar General of India. Sample Registration System. SRS bulletin 2006;41(1).

15.Fleiss JL. Statistical methods for rates and proportions. New York: John Wiley;1981.

16.Ghosh S, Kulkarni PM. Does the pattern of causes of death vary across socio-economic classes within a population? An exploratory analysis for India. Genus 2004;55-74.

17.World Health Organization. World Health Report. 1999. Geneva.

18.Srinivasan K. Basic demographic techniques and applications. New Delhi (India): Sage Publications India;1998.

19.Chandramohan D, Setel P, Quigley M. Effect of misclassification of causes of death in verbal autopsy: can it be adjusted? Int J of Epidemiol 2001;30:509-14.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page