IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0073463.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Validating the InterVA Model to Estimate the Burden of Mortality from Verbal Autopsy Data: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Author

Listed:
  • Sebsibe Tadesse

Abstract

Background: In countries with incomplete or no vital registration systems, verbal autopsy data are often reviewed by physicians in order to assign the probable cause of death. But in addition to being time and energy consuming, the method is liable to produce inconsistent results. The aim of this study is to validate the InterVA model for estimating the burden of mortality from verbal autopsy data by using physician review as a reference standard. Methods and Findings: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April, 2012. All adults aged ≥14 years and died between 01 January, 2010 and 15 February, 2012 were included in the study. The verbal autopsy interviews were reviewed by the InterVA model and physicians to estimate cause-specific mortality fractions. Cohen’s kappa statistic, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were applied to compare the agreement between the InterVA model and the physician review. A total of 408 adult deaths were studied. There was a general similarity and just slight differences between the InterVA model and the physicians in assigning cause-specific mortality. Both approaches showed an overall agreement in 298 (73%) cases [kappa = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.37-0.60]. The observed sensitivities and specificities across causes of death categories varied from 13.3% to 81.9% and 77.7% to 99.5%, respectively. Conclusions: In understanding the burden of disease and setting health intervention priorities in areas that lack reliable vital registration systems, an accurate analysis of verbal autopsies is essential. Therefore, users should be aware of the suboptimal performance of the InterVA model. Similar validation studies need to be undertaken considering the limitation of the physician review as gold standard since physicians may misinterpret some of the verbal autopsy data and finally reach a wrong conclusion of the cause of death.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebsibe Tadesse, 2013. "Validating the InterVA Model to Estimate the Burden of Mortality from Verbal Autopsy Data: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-1, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0073463
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073463
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073463
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073463&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0073463?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher J L Murray & Alan D Lopez & Dennis M Feehan & Shanon T Peter & Gonghuan Yang, 2007. "Validation of the Symptom Pattern Method for Analyzing Verbal Autopsy Data," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(11), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Peter Byass, 2007. "Who Needs Cause-of-Death Data?," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(11), pages 1-2, November.
    3. Dean T. Jamison & Richard G. Feacham & Malegapuru W. Makgoba & Eduard R. Bos & Florence K. Baingana & Karen J. Hofman & Khama O. Rogo, 2006. "Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa, Second Edition," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7050.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dolores Ramirez-Villalobos & Andrea Leigh Stewart & Minerva Romero & Sara Gomez & Abraham D Flaxman & Bernardo Hernandez, 2019. "Analysis of causes of death using verbal autopsies and vital registration in Hidalgo, Mexico," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-12, July.
    2. Céline Azémar & Rodolphe Desbordes, 2009. "Public Governance, Health and Foreign Direct Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 18(4), pages 667-709, August.
    3. D'Ambruoso, Lucia & Byass, Peter & Qomariyah, Siti Nurul & Ouédraogo, Moctar, 2010. "A lost cause? Extending verbal autopsy to investigate biomedical and socio-cultural causes of maternal death in Burkina Faso and Indonesia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1728-1738, November.
    4. Rekiku Fikre & Muntasha Berhanu, 2019. "Current Evidence’s on Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care in Primary Health Care unit of Gedeo zone, South Ethiopia, 2018," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 17(3), pages 12838-12843, April.
    5. Gouda, Hebe N. & Flaxman, Abraham D. & Brolan, Claire E. & Joshi, Rohina & Riley, Ian D. & AbouZahr, Carla & Firth, Sonja & Rampatige, Rasika & Lopez, Alan D., 2017. "New challenges for verbal autopsy: Considering the ethical and social implications of verbal autopsy methods in routine health information systems," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 65-74.
    6. Edward Fottrell & Kathleen Kahn & Stephen Tollman & Peter Byass, 2011. "Probabilistic Methods for Verbal Autopsy Interpretation: InterVA Robustness in Relation to Variations in A Priori Probabilities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-7, November.
    7. Ochi, John & Madaki, Musa & Murtala, Nasiru, 2015. "Economic and Social Linkages Between Malaria Illness and Crop Production in Yobe State, Nigeria," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212587, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Suhyun Jung & Seong-Hoon Cho & Roland K. Roberts, 2015. "The impact of government funding of poverty reduction programmes," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 653-675, August.
    9. Tsuyoshi Kunihama & Zehang Richard Li & Samuel J. Clark & Tyler H. McCormick, 2018. "Bayesian factor models for probabilistic cause of death assessment with verbal autopsies," Discussion Paper Series 177, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Mar 2018.
    10. Anna-Maria Aksan, 2014. "Effects of Childhood Mortality and Morbidity on the Fertility Transition in sub-Saharan Africa," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(2), pages 311-329, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0073463. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.