ArticlePLoS medicine2018
The WHO 2016 verbal autopsy instrument: An international standard suitable for automated analysis by InterVA, InSilicoVA, and Tariff 2.0.
Article in PLoS medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 108 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
108 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Death registration in Nigeria: a systematic literature review of its performance and challenges.Global health action · 2020Pooled it
- Errors in reported ages and dates in surveys of adult mortality: A record linkage study in Niakhar (Senegal).Population studies · 2021Trial
- Cause-specific mortality of children younger than 5 years in communities receiving biannual mass azithromycin treatment in Niger: verbal autopsy results from a cluster-randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Global health · 2020Trial
- Automated versus physician assignment of cause of death for verbal autopsies: randomized trial of 9374 deaths in 117 villages in India.BMC medicine · 2019Trial
- A verbal and social autopsy study to improve estimates of mortality determinants in Pakistan: study design and methods.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Determining causes of death through an abridged verbal autopsy tool: a pilot test conducted among vulnerable communities in Kolkata, India.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Community Health and Demographic Surveillance System for Noncommunicable Disease Epidemiology Among Adults in Rural and Urban Zimbabwe, 2024-2029: Protocol for a Longitudinal Surveillance Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Outpatient management of children with chest indrawing pneumonia in primary healthcare settings in Punjab, Pakistan: a prospective cohort study.Journal of global health · 2026Observational
- Assessment of childhood pneumonia management and outcomes at primary healthcare centres in Islamabad and Rawalpindi: an observational cohort study from Pakistan.Journal of global health · 2026Observational
- New onset seizure etiologies and outcomes among adults with HIV in the era of broadly available antiretroviral therapies.Seizure · 2026Article
- Assessing the feasibility and appropriateness of verbal autopsy using contact information of the deceased from burial records in urban Bangladesh.Journal of global health · 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
- Adaptive modelling approach for predicting causes of death: insights from verbal autopsy data in Tanzania.International health · 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
- Article
- Trends and urban-rural disparities in infant and cause-specific mortality in Shaanxi Province, China, 2014-2023: a population-based study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Observational
- Mortality of female and male Croatian Olympic athletes: a 1948-2016 cohort study.Croatian medical journal · 2025Article
- Determining the cause of death through mortality surveillance using verbal autopsy in Karachi, Pakistan.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Adolescent and young adult mortality in Bangladesh: findings from household surveys.Journal of global 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
48 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
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVerbal autopsy (VA) is a practical method for determining probable causes of death at the population level in places where systems for medical certification of cause of death are weak. VA methods suitable for use in routine settings, such as civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems, have developed rapidly in the last decade. These developments have been part of a growing global momentum to strengthen CRVS systems in low-income countries. With this momentum have come pressure for continued research and development of VA methods and the need for a single standard VA instrument on which multiple automated diagnostic methods can be developed. METHODS AND
findingsIn 2016, partners harmonized a WHO VA standard instrument that fully incorporates the indicators necessary to run currently available automated diagnostic algorithms. The WHO 2016 VA instrument, together with validated approaches to analyzing VA data, offers countries solutions to improving information about patterns of cause-specific mortality. This VA instrument offers the opportunity to harmonize the automated diagnostic algorithms in the future.
conclusionsDespite all improvements in design and technology, VA is only recommended where medical certification of cause of death is not possible. The method can nevertheless provide sufficient information to guide public health priorities in communities in which physician certification of deaths is largely unavailable. The WHO 2016 VA instrument, together with validated approaches to analyzing VA data, offers countries solutions to improving information about patterns of cause-specific mortality.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.