Applying the InterVA-4 model to determine causes of death in rural Ethiopia

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Glob Health Action
• Personal Author:
  Weldearegawi, Berhe ; Melaku, Yohannes Adama ; Spigt, Mark ; Dinant, Geert Jan
• Description:
  Background
  
  In Ethiopia, most deaths take place at home and routine certification of cause of death by physicians is lacking. As a result, reliable cause of death (CoD) data are often not available. Recently, a computerized method for interpretation of verbal autopsy (VA) data, called InterVA, has been developed and used. It calculates the probability of a set of CoD given the presence of circumstances, signs, and symptoms reported during VA interviews. We applied the InterVA model to describe CoD in a rural population of Ethiopia.
  
  Objective
  
  VA data for 436/599 (72.7%) deaths that occurred during 2010–2011 were included. InterVA-4 was used to interpret the VA data into probable cause of death. Cause-specific mortality fraction was used to describe frequency of occurrence of death from specific causes.
  
  Results
  
  InterVA-4 was able to give likely cause(s) of death for 401/436 of the cases (92.0%). Overall, 35.0% of the total deaths were attributed to communicable diseases, and 30.7% to chronic non-communicable diseases. Tuberculosis (12.5%) and acute respiratory tract infections (10.4%) were the most frequent causes followed by neoplasms (9.6%) and diseases of circulatory system (7.2%).
  
  Conclusion
  
  InterVA-4 can produce plausible estimates of the major public health problems that can guide public health interventions. We encourage further validation studies, in local settings, so that InterVA can be integrated into national health surveys.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Adult Aged Autopsy Cause Of Death Child Child, Preschool Data Collection Female Humans Infant Infant, Newborn Male Middle Aged Mortality Population Surveillance Rural Population Software

  More +
• Source:
  Glob Health Action. 2014; 7.
• Pubmed ID:
  25377338
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4220136
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  5U22/PS022179_10/PS/NCHHSTP CDC HHS/United States ; Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom
• Place as Subject:
  Ethiopia
• Volume:
  7
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:6005dffbdc4ffaef6c2c6d606fa1ca08a16a611334f0f718148a265f5e5d407e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/27877/cdc_27877_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 170.17 KB ]