Overview and Development of the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance Determination of Cause of Death (DeCoDe) Process and DeCoDe Diagnosis Standards

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Dianna M Blau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; J Patrick Caneer, Task Force for Global Health; Rebecca Philipsborn, Emory University; Shabir A Madhi, University of Witwatersrand; Quique Bassat, University of Barcelona; Rosauro Varo, University of Barcelona; Inacio Mandomando, Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça; Kitiezo Aggrey Igunza, Kenya Medical Research Institute; Karen L Kotloff, University of Maryland; Milagritos D Tapia, University of Maryland; Siobhban Johnstone, University of Witwatersrand; Richard Chawana, University of Witwatersrand; Afruna Rahman, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh; Shams El Arifeen, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh; Dickens Onyango, Kisumu County Health Department; Reinhard Kaiser, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sierra Leone; Anna C Seale, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Nega Assefa, Haramaya University; Timothy Morris, Task Force for Global Health; Pratima L Raghunathan, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Robert F Breiman, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-10-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy B - Oxford Open Option C
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciz572
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Clinical Infectious Diseases
• ISSN: 1058-4838
• Volume: 69
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: S333
• End Page: S341
• Grant/Funding Information: This supplement is sponsored by the Emory Global Health Institute and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.; This work was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [OPP1126780].
• Keywords: mortality review; data management; CHAMPS; Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Immunology; Microbiology; Infectious Diseases; cause of death; ENGLAND; HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES; vital records
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

Mortality surveillance and cause of death data are instrumental in improving health, identifying diseases and conditions that cause a high burden of preventable deaths, and allocating resources to prevent these deaths. The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network uses a standardized process to define, assign, and code causes of stillbirth and child death (<5 years of age) across the CHAMPS network. A Determination of Cause of Death (DeCoDe) panel composed of experts from a local CHAMPS site analyzes all available individual information, including laboratory, histopathology, abstracted clinical records, and verbal autopsy findings for each case and, if applicable, also for the mother. Using this information, the site panel ascertains the underlying cause (event that precipitated the fatal sequence of events) and other antecedent, immediate, and maternal causes of death in accordance with the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision and the World Health Organization death certificate. Development and use of the CHAMPS diagnosis standards-a framework of required evidence to support cause of death determination-assures a homogenized procedure leading to a more consistent interpretation of complex data across the CHAMPS network. This and other standardizations ensures future comparability with other sources of mortality data produced externally to this project. Early lessons learned from implementation of DeCoDe in 5 CHAMPS sites in sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh have been incorporated into the DeCoDe process, and the implementation of DeCoDe has the potential to spur health systems improvements and local public health action.