ArticleGlobal health action2024
Validating the diagnostic accuracy of medical certification: a population-level comparison between verbal autopsy and Saudi medical records causes of death of deceased with type 2 diabetes.
Article in Global health action, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Advancing Health Through Sustainable Development Goals-Saudi Arabia's Mid-Journey Progress and Insights.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn contexts where certifying causes of death (COD) is inadequate - either in industrialized or non-industrialized countries - verbal autopsy (VA) serves as a practical method for determining probable COD, helping to address gaps in vital data.
objectiveThis study aimed to validate the diagnostic accuracy of medical certifications at a population level by comparing COD obtained from medical records against those derived from VA in Saudi Arabia.
methodDeath records from 2018 to 2021 were collected from a type 2 diabetes mellitus register at a major specialist hospital in Makkah. Three hundred and two VA interviews were completed with deceased patients' relatives, and the probable COD was determined using InterVA-5 software. Lin's concordance correlation coefficient was applied to examine similarities of the cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) based on International Classification of Diseases chapters from both verbal autopsy causes of death (VACOD) and the physician review causes of death (PRCOD).
resultsOverall, the findings demonstrated a moderate level of concordance of COD at the population between VACOD and PRCOD. However, the CSMFs for various COD categories derived from both sources showed a broad spectrum of absolute differences, with the largest disparities observed among the most prevalent COD categories.
conclusionPRCOD was found to overestimate population-level endocrine/metabolic and respiratory disease COD while underestimating circulatory disease, demonstrating medical certification challenges. Conversely, affirming previous literature on prevalent COD in Saudi Arabia, VA appears to deliver a plausible assessment, further strengthening its potential to integrate within the Saudi health system towards an augmented medical certification process.
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