Abstract
Introduction: Information on causes of death is extremely important for policy making, planning, monitoring, field research, future management statergies and epidemic awareness. The best method of finding the cause of death is by post mortem examination but since this is difficult, post death analysis by verbal autopsy is a good method to determine the same. Objective: To asses the role of verbal autopsy method in the investigation of neonatal death and to determine the probable, causes of neonatal death. Materials and Methods: A pre-tested questionnaire in Hindi was administered to 50 mothers and/or next of kin or other care givers of the deceased residing in villages around 200 Kms. of Bhopal and in urban slums of Municipal Corporation, Bhopal. Results: 84 % of the total death occurred with in seven days of birth, 88 % of death occurred in villages where health facilities were available. As per verbal autopsy 36 % and 20 % of the infants died because of Birth asphyxia and Respiratory Distress Syndrome respectively and further 2%, 4% and 6% because of neonatal tetanus, hypothermia and other causes respectively. Conclusion: Verbal autopsy could be one of the possible cost effective and a reliable tool for determining the causes of neonatal deaths at present. Key words: Verbal Autopsy; Neonatal death; Reliable respondents and category of villages. DOI: 10.3126/jnps.v31i1.2942J Nep Paedtr Soc 2010;31(1):44-48
Highlights
Information on causes of death is extremely important for policy making, planning, monitoring, field research, future management statergies and epidemic awareness
Information on causes of neonatal death is extremely important for policy making, planning, monitoring, field research comparison and epidemic awareness
How ever in developing countries like India where large number of deaths are not medically certified, this critical information is usually incomplete and of poor quality. Since this situation is not going to change in near future, there is an urgent need to develop an alternative method of obtaining information on the causes of death. In these difficult situations post death analysis by verbal autopsy is the only ray of hope to determine the possible cause of neonatal deaths based on an interview with mother / kin or other care givers
Summary
Information on causes of death is extremely important for policy making, planning, monitoring, field research, future management statergies and epidemic awareness. Information on causes of neonatal death is extremely important for policy making, planning, monitoring, field research comparison and epidemic awareness. How ever in developing countries like India where large number of deaths are not medically certified, this critical information is usually incomplete and of poor quality Since this situation is not going to change in near future, there is an urgent need to develop an alternative method of obtaining information on the causes of death. In these difficult situations post death analysis by verbal autopsy is the only ray of hope to determine the possible cause of neonatal deaths based on an interview with mother / kin or other care givers. This study has been conducted to identify the under lying cause and determinants of infants deaths and to determine the use of verbal autopsy as a proxy of possible cause of neonatal deaths
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