Verbal Autopsy in Bangladesh

Abstract

Verbal autopsy (VA) is a method of determining individuals’ causes of death and cause-specific mortality fractions in populations without a complete vital registration system. In such areas the majority of deaths occur outside hospitals and are not recorded. Verbal autopsy is very helpful to determine probable causes of death for the area where, there is no formal medical attention given. It is a method of gathering health information about a deceased individual to determine his or her cause of death. Verbal autopsies symptoms data reported by a family member or paid helper who regularly looks after a patient along with the cause of death are collected from a medical facility, and the cause-of-death distribution is estimated in the population where only symptom data are available. This paper develops a new database about verbal autopsy in Bangladesh to clarify cause of death using information acquired through VA. My database shares some symptom information about some people to estimate the reasons of death.