Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH
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Trop. Med. Int. Health · Jun 1998
Multicenter StudyVerbal autopsies for adult deaths: their development and validation in a multicentre study.
Verbal autopsy (VA) has been widely used to ascertain causes of child deaths, but little is known about the usefulness of VA for adult deaths. This paper describes the process used to develop a VA tool for adult deaths and the results of a multicentre validation of this tool. ⋯ VAs by a panel of physicians performed better than an opinion-based algorithm. The validity of VA diagnosis was highest for AFI, direct maternal causes, TB/AIDS, tetanus, rabies and injuries.