Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
medicine
Childhood deaths in Africa: uses and limitations of verbal autopsies
The Lancet, Volume 340, No. 8815, Year 1992
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
The verbal autopsy (VA) is an epidemiological tool that is widely used to ascribe causes of death by interviewing bereaved relatives of children who were not under medical supervision at the time of death. This technique was assessed by comparison with a prospective survey of 303 childhood deaths at a district hospital in Kenya where medically confirmed diagnoses were available. Common causes of death were detected by VA with specificities greater than 80%. Sensitivity of the VA technique was greater than 75% for measles, neonatal tetanus, malnutrition, and trauma-related deaths; however, malaria, anaemia, acute respiratory-tract infection, gastroenteritis, and meningitis were detected with sensitivities of less than 50%. There may have been unwarranted optimism in the ability of VAs to detect some of the major causes of death, such as malaria, in African children. VA used in malaria-specific intervention trials should be interpreted with caution and only in the light of known sensitivities and specificities. © 1992.
Authors & Co-Authors
Snow, R. W.
Unknown Affiliation
Winstanley, Maria T.
Unknown Affiliation
Marsh, Vicki M.
Unknown Affiliation
Newton, CR
Unknown Affiliation
Waruiru, Catherine M.
Unknown Affiliation
Mwangi, Isaiah
Unknown Affiliation
Winstanley, P. A.
Unknown Affiliation
Marsh, K.
Unknown Affiliation
Snow, Robert William
Unknown Affiliation
Forster, Dayo
Unknown Affiliation
Winstanley, Peter A.
Unknown Affiliation
Marsh, Kevin
Unknown Affiliation
Armstrong, J. R.M.
Unknown Affiliation
Statistics
Citations: 326
Authors: 13
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1016/0140-6736(92)91414-4
ISSN:
01406736
Research Areas
Food Security
Health System And Policy
Infectious Diseases
Maternal And Child Health
Study Design
Randomised Control Trial
Cross Sectional Study
Cohort Study
Study Approach
Quantitative
Study Locations
Kenya