ArticlePopulation health metrics2016
A feasibility study on using smartphones to conduct short-version verbal autopsies in rural China.
Article in Population health metrics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Birth and death notification via mobile devices: a mixed methods systematic review.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Data Quality and Cost-effectiveness Analyses of Electronic and Paper-Based Interviewer-Administered Public Health Surveys: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Health workers' perceptions and experiences of using mHealth technologies to deliver primary healthcare services: a qualitative evidence synthesis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Long-term mortality outcome of a primary care-based mobile health intervention for stroke management: Six-year follow-up of a cluster-randomized controlled trial.PLoS medicine · 2025Trial
- CKD is the Major Cause of Death in Uddanam: A Population-Representative Study Using Smart Verbal Autopsy.Kidney international reports · 2024Article
- How advanced is the epidemiological transition in Papua New Guinea? New evidence from verbal autopsy.International journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Improving cause of death certification in the Philippines: implementation of an electronic verbal autopsy decision support tool (SmartVA auto-analyse) to aid physician diagnoses of out-of-facility deaths.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Delivery of public health services by community health workers (CHWs) in primary health care settings in China: a systematic review (1996-2016).Global health research and policy · 2018Article
- Verbal autopsy in health policy and systems: a literature review.BMJ global health · 2018Article
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10 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundCurrently there are two main sources of mortality data with cause of death assignments in China. Both sources-the Ministry of Health-Vital Registration system and the Chinese Disease Surveillance Point system-present their own challenges. A new approach to cause of death assignment is a smartphone-based shortened version of a verbal autopsy survey. This study evaluates the feasibility and acceptability of this new method conducted by township health care providers (THP) and village doctors (VD) in rural China, where a large proportion of deaths occur in homes and cause of death data are inaccurate or lacking.
methodsThe Population Health Metrics Research Consortium mobile phone-based shortened verbal autopsy questionnaire was made available on an Android system-based application, and cause of death was derived using the Tariff method (Tariff 2.0); we called this set of tools "msVA." msVA was administered to relatives of the deceased by six THPs and six VDs in 24 villages located in six townships of Luquan County, Hebei Province, China. Subsequently, interviews were conducted among 12 interviewers, 12 randomly selected respondents, and five study staff to assess the feasibility and acceptability of using msVA for mortality data collection.
resultsBetween July 2013 and August 2013, 268 deaths took place in the study villages. Among the 268 deaths, 227 VAs were completed (nine refusals, 31 migrations and one loss of data due to breakdown of the smartphone). The average time for a VA interview was 21.5 ± 3.4 min (20.1 ± 3.5 min for THP and 23.2 ± 4.1 min for VD). Both THPs and VDs could be successful interviewers; the latter needed more training but had more willingness to implement msVA in the future. The interviews revealed that both interviewers and relatives of the deceased found msVA to be feasible, acceptable, and more desirable than traditional methods. The cost of conducting a new VA was $8.87 per death.
conclusionsConduction of msVA by VDs in their own villages was feasible and acceptable in rural northern China. Broader implementation of msVA across rural China could potentially improve the coverage and quality of cause of death data, allowing for better national health evaluation and program planning.
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