Commentary: Verbal autopsy procedure for adult deaths

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Abstract
Estimation of cause of death is more difficult in developing countries because neither health-facility-based information system nor vital registration provides adequate data on the cause of mortality. In many of the developing countries verbal autopsy (VA) may be a surrogate for death certificates in ascertaining causes of death. VA is a systematic retrospective inquiry of the family members about the circumstances, events, symptoms, and signs of illness prior to death to help determine the underlying cause of death and to classify the broad patterns of mortality. There are two main approaches to conducting a VA. One is using a questionnaire approach; and, the other is using a list of symptoms and signs to probe the respondent so as to get more details that would help write narrative text. The questionnaire method is more commonly used for childhood deaths1 and both questionnaire and narrative approaches have been used for adult deaths in different population settings.2–8 The VA tool used for childhood deaths1,9–12 and maternal deaths13,14 have been validated by several studies, whereas the VA tool for adult deaths for all causes has been validated by only a few studies.7,9,13,15