Population health metrics
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Population health metrics · Aug 2011
Random forests for verbal autopsy analysis: multisite validation study using clinical diagnostic gold standards.
Computer-coded verbal autopsy (CCVA) is a promising alternative to the standard approach of physician-certified verbal autopsy (PCVA), because of its high speed, low cost, and reliability. This study introduces a new CCVA technique and validates its performance using defined clinical diagnostic criteria as a gold standard for a multisite sample of 12,542 verbal autopsies (VAs). ⋯ We found that our RF Method outperformed the PCVA method in terms of chance-corrected concordance and CSMF accuracy for adult and child VA with and without HCE and for neonatal VA without HCE. It is also preferable to PCVA in terms of time and cost. Therefore, we recommend it as the technique of choice for analyzing past and current verbal autopsies.