Validation of physician certified verbal autopsy using conventional autopsy: a large study of adult non-external causes of death in a metropolitan area in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Reliable mortality data are essential for the development of public health policies. In Brazil, although there is a well-consolidated universal system for mortality data, the quality of information on causes of death (CoD) is not even among Brazilian regions, with a high proportion of ill-defined CoD. Verbal autopsy (VA) is an alternative to improve mortality data. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of an adapted and reduced version of VA in identifying the underlying causes of non-forensic deaths, in São Paulo, Brazil. This is the first time that a version of the questionnaire has been validated considering the autopsy as the gold standard. METHODS: The performance of a physician-certified verbal autopsy (PCVA) was evaluated considering conventional autopsy (macroscopy plus microscopy) as gold standard, based on a sample of 2060 decedents that were sent to the Post-Mortem Verification Service (SVOC-USP). All CoD, from the underlying to the immediate, were listed by both parties, and ICD-10 attributed by a senior coder. For each cause, sensitivity and chance corrected concordance (CCC) were computed considering first the underlying causes attributed by the pathologist and PCVA, and then any CoD listed in the death certificate given by PCVA. Cause specific mortality fraction accuracy (CSMF-accuracy) and chance corrected CSMF-accuracy were computed to evaluate the PCVA performance at the populational level. RESULTS: There was substantial variability of the sensitivities and CCC across the causes. Well-known chronic diseases with accurate diagnoses that had been informed by physicians to family members, such as various cancers, had sensitivities above 40% or 50%. However, PCVA was not effective in attributing Pneumonia, Cardiomyopathy and Leukemia/Lymphoma as underlying CoD. At populational level, the PCVA estimated cause specific mortality fractions (CSMF) may be considered close to the fractions pointed by the gold standard. The CSMF-accuracy was 0.81 and the chance corrected CSMF-accuracy was 0.49. CONCLUSIONS: The PCVA was efficient in attributing some causes individually and proved effective in estimating the CSMF, which indicates that the method is useful to establish public health priorities.

Rollout of community-based family health strategy (programa de saude de familia) is associated with large reductions in neonatal mortality in São Paulo, Brazil.

RATIONALE: Several recent studies suggest that Brazil's Estratégia Saude de Familia (Family Health Strategy-FHS) has contributed to declines in mortality at the national and regional level. Comparatively little is known whether this approach is effective in urban populations with relatively easy access to health services. OBJECTIVES: To use detailed medical data collected as part of São Paulo's Western Region project to examine whether the FHS program had an impact on child health in São Paulo, Brazil. RESULTS: No associations were found between FHS and birth weight (OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.93-1.29), gestational length (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.83-1.15) or stillbirth (OR 1.51, 95% CI 0.75-3.03). FHS eligibility was associated with a 42% reduction in the odds of child mortality (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.34, 0.91), with largest effect sizes for the early neonatal period (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04-0.79). CONCLUSIONS: Community based health delivery platforms may be a highly effective way to reduce neonatal mortality in urban areas of low and middle income countries, even when access to general health services is almost universal.

O PRO-AIM e seu programa de cartas: uma busca contínua da melhoria da qualidade das informações de mortalidade no município de São Paulo

Apresenta estudo sobre o Programa de Cartas que tem contribuído para a melhoria da qualidade das informações de mortalidade no Município de São Paulo, promovendo maior especificação das causas de morte e diminuindo a proporção de causas mal definidas ou imprecisas

O PRO-AIM e seu programa de cartas: uma busca contínua da melhoria da qualidade das informações de mortalidade no município de São Paulo / The PRO-AIM and its program of letters: a continuous search for improving the quality of information on mortality in São Paulo

Apresenta estudo sobre o Programa de Cartas que tem contribuído para a melhoria da qualidade das informações de mortalidade no Município de São Paulo, promovendo maior especificação das causas de morte e diminuindo a proporção de causas mal definidas ou imprecisas