%0 Journal Article
%T An improved method for physician-certified verbal autopsy reduces the rate of discrepancy: experiences in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (NHDSS), Burkina Faso
%A Maurice Y¨¦
%A Eric Diboulo
%A Louis Niamba
%A Ali Si¨¦
%A Boubacar Coulibaly
%A Cheik Bagagnan
%A Jonas Demb¨¦l¨¦
%A Heribert Ramroth
%J Population Health Metrics
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1478-7954-9-34
%X We present an extension of the current method of PCVA and compare it to the standard WHO-recommended procedure. We used VA data collected in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (NHDSS) between 2009 and 2010 using a locally-adapted version of an INDEPTH standard verbal autopsy questionnaire. Until 2009, physicians in the NHDSS followed the WHO method (Method 1). As an extension of Method 1, starting in 2010, the use of a panel of physicians was added to the coding process in the case where a third physician's final conclusions resulted in an undetermined COD (Method 2). Two independent samples of VA questionnaires were compared for the year 2009 (using Method 1) and the year 2010 (using Method 2).The WHO-recommended method used for 2009 yielded a high level of undetermined CODs, where the final coding was "undetermined" in 50.8% of all questionnaires due to disagreement among participating physicians (Method 1). By introducing a panel of physicians in 2010 for cases where the principal physicians disagreed on the cause of death, the revised method significantly reduced the proportion of undetermined CODs to 1.5% (Method 2).As the extended method of PCVA significantly improved the accuracy of the VA procedure, we suggest the adoption of this method for those countries where alternatives like computer-based VA coding are not available. Based on the results of our study, further research should be pursued.Verbal autopsy (VA) is a technique used to determine the cause of death by asking caregivers, friends, or family members about signs and symptoms exhibited by the deceased in the period before death. It is usually done by trained fieldworkers using a standardized questionnaire that collects details on signs, symptoms, complaints, and any medical history or events prior to death [1].The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of verbal autopsy to measure specific causes of death [2,3]. The purpose of verbal autopsy is to describe the causes of
%K Verbal autopsy
%K cause of death
%K discrepancy
%K concordance
%K Nouna
%K Burkina Faso
%U http://www.pophealthmetrics.com/content/9/1/34