Estimating causes of death where there is no medical certification: evolution and state of the art of verbal autopsy.

ABSTRACT: Over the past 70 years, significant advances have been made in determining the causes of death in populations not served by official medical certification of cause at the time of death using a technique known as Verbal Autopsy (VA). VA involves an interview of the family or caregivers of the deceased after a suitable bereavement interval about the circumstances, signs and symptoms of the deceased in the period leading to death. The VA interview data are then interpreted by physicians or, more recently, computer algorithms, to assign a probable cause of death. VA was originally developed and applied in field research settings. This paper traces the evolution of VA methods with special emphasis on the World Health Organization's (WHO)'s efforts to standardize VA instruments and methods for e

SUBMITTER: Chandramohan D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8986278 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature