Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29945624›Full record

ArticlePopulation health metrics2018

Comparing tariff and medical assistant assigned causes of death from verbal autopsy interviews in Matlab, Bangladesh: implications for a health and demographic surveillance system.

Riley H Hazard, Nurul Alam, Hafizur Rahman Chowdhury, Tim Adair, Saidul Alam, Peter Kim Streatfield, Ian Douglas Riley, Alan D Lopez

Open access · goldAbstract readComparative Study
In one paragraph

Article in Population health metrics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.9field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Riley H HazardSchool of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia. riley.hazard@unimelb.edu.au.ORCID 0000-0003-3774-2705
Nurul AlamInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Hafizur Rahman ChowdhurySchool of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Tim AdairSchool of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Saidul AlamInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Peter Kim StreatfieldInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Ian Douglas RileySchool of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Alan D LopezSchool of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
The University of Melbourne · AUInternational Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research · BD

Funding

National Health and Medical Research Council 631494
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDeaths in developing countries often occur outside health facilities, making it extremely difficult to gather reliable cause of death (COD) information. Automated COD assignment using a verbal autopsy instrument (VAI) has been proposed as a reliable and cost-effective alternative to traditional physician-certified verbal autopsy, but its performance is still being evaluated. The purpose of this study was to compare the similarity of diagnosis by Medical Assistants (MA) in the Matlab Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) with the SmartVA Analyze 1.2 (Tariff 2.0) diagnosis.

methodsThis study took place between January 2011 and April 2014 in Matlab, Bangladesh. MA with 3 years of medical training assigned COD to Matlab residents by reviewing the information collected using the Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC) long-form VAI. Smart VA Analyze 1.2 automatically assigned COD using the same questionnaire. COD agreement and cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) were compared for MA and Tariff.

resultsOf the 4969 verbal autopsy cases reviewed, 4328 were adults, 296 were children, and 345 were neonates. Cohen's kappa was 0.38 (0.36, 0.40) for adults, 0.43 (0.38, 0.49) for children, and 0.27 (0.22, 0.33) for neonates. For adults, the top two COD for MA were stroke (29.6%) and ischemic heart diseases (IHD) (14.2%) and for Tariff these were stroke (32.0%) and IHD (14.0%). For children, the top two COD for MA were drowning (33.5%) and pneumonia (13.2%) and for Tariff these were also drowning (36.8%) and pneumonia (12.4%). For neonates, the top two COD for MA were birth asphyxia (41.2%) and meningitis/sepsis (22.3%) and for Tariff these were birth asphyxia (37.0%) and preterm delivery (30.9%).

conclusionThe CSMFs for Tariff and MA showed very close agreement across all age categories but some differences were observed for neonate preterm delivery and meningitis/sepsis. Given the known advantages of automated methods over physician certified verbal autopsy, the SmartVA software, incorporating the shortened VAI questionnaire and Tariff 2.0, could serve as a cost-effective alternative to Matlab MA to routinely collect and analyze verbal autopsy data in a HDSS to generate essential population level COD data for planning.

Indexed as

Allied Health PersonnelCause of DeathDeathPopulation SurveillanceSoftwareAdolescentAdultAgedAutopsyBangladeshChildCost-Benefit AnalysisDemographyFemaleHumansInfantBangladeshCause of deathMedical assistantTariffVerbal autopsyVital registration system

Identifiers

PMID29945624
PMCPMC6020332
OpenAlexW2810353384

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.