Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34824138›Full record

ArticleBMJ global health2021

Subnational mortality estimates for India in 2019: a baseline for evaluating excess deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chalapati Rao, Amrit Jose John, Ajit Kumar Yadav, Mansha Siraj

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ global health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
2.0field-weighted citation impact, top 12% 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

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.

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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

4 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

Chalapati RaoResearch School of Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia chalapati.rao@anu.edu.au.ORCID 0000-0002-9554-0581
Amrit Jose JohnInternational Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India.ORCID 0000-0003-4388-6537
Ajit Kumar YadavIndo German Programme on Universal Health Coverage, GIZ, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Delhi, India.
Mansha SirajGoldman School of Public Policy, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.
Australian National University · AUDeutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit · PHGoldman Sachs (United States) · USInternational Institute for Population Sciences · IN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEstimates of excess mortality are required to assess and compare the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across populations. For India, reliable baseline prepandemic mortality patterns at national and subnational level are necessary for such assessments. However, available data from the Civil Registration System (CRS) is affected by incompleteness of death recording that varies by sex, age and location.

methodsUnder-reporting of CRS 2019 deaths was assessed for three age groups (< 5 years, 15-59 years and ≥60 years) at subnational level, through comparison with age-specific death rates from alternate sources. Age-specific corrections for under-reporting were applied to derive adjusted death counts by sex for each location. These were used to compute life expectancy (LE) at birth by sex in 2019, which were compared with subnational LEs from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 Study.

resultsA total of 9.92 million deaths (95% UI 9.70 to 10.02) were estimated across India in 2019, about 2.28 million more than CRS reports. Adjustments to under-five and elderly mortality accounted for 30% and 56% of additional deaths, respectively. Adjustments in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh accounted for 75% of all additional deaths. Adjusted LEs were below corresponding GBD estimates by ≥2 years for males at national level and in 20 states, and by ≥1 year for females in 12 states.

conclusionsThese results represent the first-ever subnational mortality estimates for India derived from CRS reported deaths, and serve as a baseline for assessing excess mortality from the COVID-19 pandemic. Adjusted life expectancies indicate higher mortality patterns in India than previously perceived. Under-reporting of infant deaths and those among women and the elderly is evident in many locations. Further CRS strengthening is required to improve the empirical basis for local mortality measurement across the country.

Indexed as

COVID-19AgedChild, PreschoolFemaleGlobal Burden of DiseaseHumansIndiaInfantInfant, NewbornMalePandemicsSARS-CoV-2epidemiologyhealth policypublic health

Identifiers

PMID34824138
PMCPMC8627370
OpenAlexW3215672415

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Registered trials

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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.