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Validation and application of verbal autopsies in a rural area of South Africa by Kathleen Kahn; Stephen M. Tollman; Michel Garenne; John S. S. Gear is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Validation and application of verbal autopsies in a rural area of South Africa about?

**Summary** objective To validate the causes of death determined with a single verbal autopsy instrument covering all age groups in the Agincourt subdistrict of rural South Africa. methods Verbal autopsies (VAs) were conducted on all deaths recorded during annual demographic and health surveillance over a 3‐year period (1992–95) in a population of about 63 000 people. Trained fieldworkers elicited signs and symptoms of the terminal illness from a close caregiver, using a comprehensive questionnaire written in the local language. Questionnaires were assessed blind by three clinicians who assigned a probable cause of death using a stepwise consensus process. Validation involved comparison of VA diagnoses with hospital reference diagnoses obtained for those who died in a district hospital; and calculation of sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) for children under 5 years, and adults 15 years and older. results A total of 127 hospital diagnoses satisfied the criteria for inclusion as reference diagnoses. For communicable diseases, sensitivity of VA diagnoses among children was 69%, specificity 96%, and PPV 90%; among adults the values were 89, 93 and 76%. Low

Who reads Validation and application of verbal autopsies in a rural area of South Africa?

Author

Kathleen Kahn; Stephen M. Tollman; Michel Garenne; John S. S. Gear

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (Blackwell Publishing); Blackwell Publishing Inc.; Wiley; ScienceOpen (ISSN 1360-2276)

Published

2000

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)