Abstract
Objective
To identify medical and non-medical factors associated with young infant deaths using verbal autopsies and to evaluate the validity of state verbal autopsy tool in identifying medical causes.
Design
Descriptive study to report factors associated with young infant deaths, and diagnostic accuracy study of the verbal autopsy tool.
Results
Prematurity related illnesses were the major contributors to mortality. Deliveries were predominantly in health care facilities (99%); lower maternal education (11.2%), lesser birth spacing (80%), and higher birth order (7.5%) were other factors noted. Verbal autopsy questionnaire had a diagnostic accuracy of ≥95% in identifying major causes of death (kappa value 0.8–1.0).
Conclusion
Current state verbal autopsy tool is valid in identifying causes of death.
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Ethics Clearance
Institutional ethics committee Madras Medical College, Chennai; No. ECR/270/mst./TN/2013/No.10012017, dated January 3, 2017.
Contributors
UDR: design of study, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, manuscript writing and draft preparation; MBS: data interpretation, design, critical editing and draft preparation; KJ: data interpretation, design, critical editing and draft preparation. All the authors contributed to drafting of the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Usha Devi, R., Mangala Bharathi, S. & Kumutha, J. Analysis of Young Infant Deaths Using Verbal Autopsies and Accuracy of Verbal Autopsy Tool in Chennai, India. Indian Pediatr 58, 363–366 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-021-2197-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-021-2197-3