BACKGROUND: Information on causes of death is vital for planning of health services. However, vital events registration systems are weak in developing countries. Therefore, verbal autopsy (VA) tools were incorporated in a community-based surveillance system to track causes of death. METHOD AND FINDINGS: Trained fieldworker identified all deaths and interviewed a living relative of those who had died during 1992-2009, using VA, in eight villages of Haryana (11,864 populations). These field reports detailing events preceding death were reviewed by two trained physicians, who independently assigned an International Classification of Disease-10 code to each death. Discrepancies were resolved through reconciliation and, if necessary, adjudication. Non-communicable conditions were the leading causes of death (47.6%) followed by communicable diseases including maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions (34.0%), and injuries (11.4%). Cause of death could not be determined in 6.9% cases. Deaths due to cardiovascular diseases showed a significant rise, whereas deaths due to diarrhoeal diseases have declined (p<0.01). Majority (90.0%) of the deceased had contacted a healthcare provider during illness but only 11.5% were admitted in hospital before death. CONCLUSION: Rising trend of cardiovascular diseases observed in a rural community of Haryana in India calls for reorientation of rural healthcare delivery system for prevention and control of chronic diseases.
AD - School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. dr.rajeshkumar@gmail.com AN - 22052938 BT - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health DP - NLM ET - 2011/11/05 LA - eng LB - INJ M1 - 10 N1 - Kumar, RajeshBACKGROUND: Information on causes of death is vital for planning of health services. However, vital events registration systems are weak in developing countries. Therefore, verbal autopsy (VA) tools were incorporated in a community-based surveillance system to track causes of death. METHOD AND FINDINGS: Trained fieldworker identified all deaths and interviewed a living relative of those who had died during 1992-2009, using VA, in eight villages of Haryana (11,864 populations). These field reports detailing events preceding death were reviewed by two trained physicians, who independently assigned an International Classification of Disease-10 code to each death. Discrepancies were resolved through reconciliation and, if necessary, adjudication. Non-communicable conditions were the leading causes of death (47.6%) followed by communicable diseases including maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions (34.0%), and injuries (11.4%). Cause of death could not be determined in 6.9% cases. Deaths due to cardiovascular diseases showed a significant rise, whereas deaths due to diarrhoeal diseases have declined (p<0.01). Majority (90.0%) of the deceased had contacted a healthcare provider during illness but only 11.5% were admitted in hospital before death. CONCLUSION: Rising trend of cardiovascular diseases observed in a rural community of Haryana in India calls for reorientation of rural healthcare delivery system for prevention and control of chronic diseases.
PY - 2012 SN - 1470-2738 (Electronic)