ArticleBMC medicine2020
Automated verbal autopsy: from research to routine use in civil registration and vital statistics systems.
Article in BMC medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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
34 citing papers in PubMed, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating the performance of verbal autopsy for assigning cause of death in older adults: A population-based cohort study in Karonga, Malawi.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2025Article
- Telephonic verbal autopsies among adults in South Africa: a feasibility and acceptability pilot study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- How can the ethical conduct of verbal autopsies be enhanced? Lessons from Southeast Asia.Global bioethics = Problemi di bioetica · 2025Article
- Synthesizing a pragmatic and systemized measure of universal health coverage: verifying the circumstances of mortality CATegories of death investigated by verbal autopsy.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Article
- How Can Community Data Be Leveraged to Advance Primary Health Care? A Scoping Review of Community-Based Health Information Systems.Global health, science and practice · 2024Article
- Unlocking Mysteries: Smart Verbal Autopsy's Role in CKD of Unknown Etiology Research.Kidney international reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Assessing the policy utility of routine mortality statistics: a global classification of countries.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2023Article
- Surveillance of stroke: a South-East Asia Region (SEAR) perspective.The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2023Review
- Putting non-communicable disease data to work in Vietnam: an investigation of community health surveillance capacity.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Estimating causes of community death of adults in Myanmar from a nationwide population sample: Application of verbal autopsy.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Why mothers die: Analysis of verbal autopsy data from Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System, Eastern Ethiopia.Journal of global health · 2022Article
- How advanced is the epidemiological transition in Papua New Guinea? New evidence from verbal autopsy.International journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Uncertainties in the path to 2030: Increasing trends of under-five mortality in the aftermath of Millennium Development Goal in Eastern Ethiopia.Journal of global health · 2022Article
- Validation of SmartVA using conventional autopsy: A study of adult deaths in Brazil.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2022Article
- Assessing the Diagnostic Accuracy of Physicians for Home Death Certification in Shanghai: Application of SmartVA.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Generating cause of death information to inform health policy: implementation of an automated verbal autopsy system in the Solomon Islands.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Integrating community-based verbal autopsy into civil registration and vital statistics: lessons learnt from five countries.BMJ global health · 2021Article
- Estimation of all-cause excess mortality by age-specific mortality patterns for countries with incomplete vital statistics: a population-based study of the case of Peru during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
14 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe majority of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) do not have adequate civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems to properly support health policy formulation. Verbal autopsy (VA), long used in research, can provide useful information on the cause of death (COD) in populations where physicians are not available to complete medical certificates of COD. Here, we report on the application of the SmartVA tool for the collection and analysis of data in several countries as part of routine CRVS activities.
methodsData from VA interviews conducted in 4 of 12 countries supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health (D4H) Initiative, and at different stages of health statistical development, were analysed and assessed for plausibility: Myanmar, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Bangladesh and the Philippines. Analyses by age- and cause-specific mortality fractions were compared to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study data by country. VA interviews were analysed using SmartVA-Analyze-automated software that was designed for use in CRVS systems. The method in the Philippines differed from the other sites in that the VA output was used as a decision support tool for health officers.
resultsCountry strategies for VA implementation are described in detail. Comparisons between VA data and country GBD estimates by age and cause revealed generally similar patterns and distributions. The main discrepancy was higher infectious disease mortality and lower non-communicable disease mortality at the PNG VA sites, compared to the GBD country models, which critical appraisal suggests may highlight real differences rather than implausible VA results.
conclusionAutomated VA is the only feasible method for generating COD data for many populations. The results of implementation in four countries, reported here under the D4H Initiative, confirm that these methods are acceptable for wide-scale implementation and can produce reliable COD information on community deaths for which little was previously known.
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.