IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0218438.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of causes of death using verbal autopsies and vital registration in Hidalgo, Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Dolores Ramirez-Villalobos
  • Andrea Leigh Stewart
  • Minerva Romero
  • Sara Gomez
  • Abraham D Flaxman
  • Bernardo Hernandez

Abstract

Introduction: Verbal autopsy (VA) is a useful tool for evaluating causes of death, especially in places with limited or no vital registration systems. The Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC) developed a validated questionnaire and a set of automated methods to determine the cause of death from a VA. However, the application of these methods needs to be tested in a community environment. Objective: To estimate cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) using VAs and compare them against those obtained in the vital statistics of the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. Methods: A random sample of deaths occurred in 2009 was selected from vital statistics in the state of Hidalgo. The full PHMRC validated VA instrument was applied to the relatives of the deceased, and the cause of death was determined using Tariff's automated method. The causes of death were grouped into 34 causes for adults, 21 for children and 6 for newborns. Results were compared with cause of death on death certificates for all deaths. Results: A total of 1,198 VAs were analyzed. The Tariff method was not able to assign a cause of death in only 9% of adults, 2% of children and 7% of neonatal deaths. The CSMFs obtained from the Tariff method were similar in some cases to those of vital statistics (e.g. cirrhosis), but different in others (e.g. sepsis). Conclusion: The application of VAs in a community sample, analyzed with the Tariff method, allowed assigning a cause of death to most of the cases, with results similar to those of vital statistics for most conditions. This tool can be useful to strengthen the quality of vital statistics.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0218438
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218438
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218438&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0218438?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.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.

    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:pone00:0218438. 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.