Generating cause of death information to inform health policy: implementation of an automated verbal autopsy system in the Solomon Islands.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Good quality cause of death (COD) information is fundamental for formulating and evaluating public health policy; yet most deaths in developing countries, including the Solomon Islands, occur at home without medical certification of cause of death (MCCOD). As a result, COD data in such contexts are often of limited use for policy and planning. Verbal autopsies (VAs) are a cost-effective way of generating reliable COD information in populations lacking comprehensive MCCOD coverage, but this method has not previously been applied in the Solomon Islands. This study describes the establishment of a VA system to estimate the cause specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) for community deaths that are not medically certified in the Solomon Islands.

Methods

Automated VA meth

SUBMITTER: Reeve M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8590305 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature