ReviewBMC medicine2014
Reliable direct measurement of causes of death in low- and middle-income countries.
Review in BMC medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Automated versus physician assignment of cause of death for verbal autopsies: randomized trial of 9374 deaths in 117 villages in India.BMC medicine · 2019Trial
- Trial
- Performance criteria for verbal autopsy-based systems to estimate national causes of death: development and application to the Indian Million Death Study.BMC medicine · 2014Trial
- Causes and Contributing Factors of In-Hospital and Post-Discharge Mortality Among Patients With Severe Acute Respiratory Infection in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Quality of Medical Certification of Cause of Death in a City of Assam.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine · 2026Article
- Homicidal Violence Against Women in Africa: Country-Level Trends From 1990 to 2021.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2026Article
- The economic value of preventing projected sepsis-related deaths among adults in 79 countries, 2000-2023, with projections to 2050: a modelling study.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Article
- Comparison of verbal autopsy using a large language model to biologically confirmed causes of death for malaria and other communicable diseases among children in six sub-Saharan African countries.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- A comparison of verbal autopsy assignment methods to obtain adult cause-specific mortality in two longitudinal studies in Rakai and Kalungu districts of South Central, Uganda.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Trends and risk factors for suicide mortality in India from 2001-2019: National mortality study.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Screening for cervical cancer among adult women: a self-reported nationwide study in Ghana.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Use of the International Classification of Diseases to Perinatal Mortality (ICD-PM) with verbal autopsy to determine the causes of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in rural Cambodia: a population-based, prospective, cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2025Article
- Excess mortality during COVID-19 and prediction of mortality in Bangladesh: an analysis based on death records in urban graveyards.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Sepsis in obstetrics score: Predicting morbidity among antenatal and postnatal women.Bioinformation · 2025Article
- Maternal mortality in Goiás: Causes of maternal death and barriers to underreporting.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Understanding the medical challenges for the diagnosis and treatment of bilateral pitting oedema in children: a qualitative study.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Incidence, healthcare-seeking behavior and barriers associated with seeking care for severe childhood pneumonia in rural Bangladesh: A prospective study.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMost of the 48 million annual deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) occur without medical attention at the time of death so that the causes of death (COD) are largely unknown. A review of low-cost methods of obtaining nationally representative COD data is timely. DISCUSSION: Despite clear historic evidence of their usefulness, most LMICs lack reliable nationally representative COD data. Indirect methods to estimate COD for most countries are inadequate, mainly because they currently rely on an average ratio of 1 nationally representative COD to every 850 estimated deaths in order to measure the cause of 25 million deaths across 110 LMICs. Direct measurement of COD is far more reliable and relevant for country priorities. Five feasible methods to expand COD data are: sample registration systems (which form the basis for the ongoing Million Death Study in India; MDS); strengthening the INDEPTH network of 42 demographic surveillance sites; adding retrospective COD surveys to the demographic household and health surveys in 90 countries; post-census retrospective mortality surveys; and for smaller countries, systematic assembly of health records. Lessons learned from the MDS, especially on low-cost, high-quality methods of verbal autopsy, paired with emerging use of electronic data capture and other innovations, can make COD systems low-cost and relevant for a wide range of childhood and adult conditions. SUMMARY: Low-cost systems to obtain and report CODs are possible. If implemented widely, COD systems could identify disease control priorities, help detect emerging epidemics, enable evaluation of disease control programs, advance indirect methods, and improve the accountability for expenditures of disease control programs.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.