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Table 1 Baseline characteristics of deaths by study group

From: Automated versus physician assignment of cause of death for verbal autopsies: randomized trial of 9374 deaths in 117 villages in India

 

Overall

(n = 9374)

Standard (physician assignment)

(n = 4651)

Automated assignment

(n = 4723)

Study sites

 Gujarat

5174 (55%)

2562 (55%)

2612 (55%)

 Punjab

4200 (45%)

2089 (45%)

2111 (45%)

Age groups

 Adult (12–69 years)

8704 (93%)

4311 (93%)

4393 (93%)

 Child (28 days to 11 years)

403 (4%)

190 (4%)

213 (5%)

 Neonate (0–27 days)

267 (3%)

150 (3%)

117 (2%)

Sex of the deceased*

 Male

6229 (66%)

3086 (66%)

3143 (67%)

 Female

3143 (34%)

1564 (34%)

1579 (33%)

Deceased’s education level*

 No formal education

4623 (49%)

2317 (50%)

2306 (49%)

 1–9 years

2591 (28%)

1252 (27%)

1339 (28%)

 10+ years

1189 (13%)

596 (13%)

593 (13%)

 Not applicable as ≤ 5 years

570 (6%)

292 (6%)

278 (6%)

Deceased’s type of house*

 Semi-solid/thatched

7442 (79%)

3702 (79%)

3740 (79%)

 Solid

1855 (20%)

915 (20%)

940 (20%)

Location of death*

 Home

6558 (70%)

3233 (70%)

3325 (70%)

 Facility

1610 (17%)

812 (17%)

798 (17%)

 Other

1190 (13%)

599 (13%)

591 (13%)

Adult key symptoms

 Fever

2834 (33%)

1400 (32%)

1434 (33%)

 Breathlessness

2171 (25%)

998 (23%)

1173 (27%)

 Chest pain

1896 (22%)

848 (20%)

1048 (24%)

 Cough

1798 (21%)

847 (20%)

951 (22%)

 Weight loss

1688 (19%)

710 (16%)

978 (22%)

 Injury

1554 (18%)

832 (19%)

722 (16%)

 Paralysis/stroke

685 (8%)

294 (7%)

391 (9%)

 Diarrhea

677 (8%)

299 (7%)

378 (9%)

 Jaundice

412 (5%)

191 (4%)

221 (5%)

Child key symptoms

 Fever

179 (44%)

95 (50%)

84 (39%)

 Diarrhea

76 (19%)

36 (19%)

40 (19%)

 Jaundice

58 (14%)

40 (21%)

18 (8%)

 Injury

61 (15%)

24 (13%)

37 (17%)

 Cough

57 (14%)

30 (16%)

27 (13%)

Neonate key symptoms

 Breathing problems

60 (23%)

31 (21%)

29 (25%)

 Fever

36 (13%)

15 (10%)

21 (18%)

 Jaundice

36 (13%)

29 (19%)

7 (6%)

 Injury

3 (1%)

1 (1%)

2 (2%)

  1. Data are in (%). Key symptoms refer to a subset of symptoms of each age group that are essential to distinguish various CODs
  2. *Every effort was made to collect data; however, deaths with missing data for sex were 1 (0%) and 1 (0%), for education level were 194 (4%) and 207 (4%), for type of house were 34 (1%) and 43 (1%), and for location of death were 7 (0%) and 9 (0%), for physician and computer assignment study groups, respectively
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BMC Medicine

ISSN: 1741-7015

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