Table 1.
Cause of death from Vital Statistics Department* and based on Verbal Autopsy of 48 000 adult deaths (aged ≥ 25) in Chennai (urban), south India: 1995–97
| Causes of death (ICD9 codes) | Cause of death in VSD | Cause of death based on Verbal Autopsy | ||
| M (%) | F (%) | M (%) | F (%) | |
| Vascular disease (390–415, 418–459) | 8319 (30) | 5168 (25) | 11056 (41) | 7435 (37) |
| Respiratory tuberculosis (TB) (011, 012, 018) | 1399 (5) | 372 (2) | 2231 (8) | 575 (3) |
| Other respiratory diseases (416, 417, 460–519) | 1088 (4) | 596 (3) | 1597 (6) | 855 (4) |
| Neoplasm (140–239) | 1163 (4) | 1002 (5) | 2344 (9) | 1999 (10) |
| Infection except respiratory & TB (rest of 1–139, 279.8 [HIV], 320-6, 590, 680-6) | 584 (2) | 303 (2) | 1034 (4) | 618 (3) |
| Unspecified medical causes (780-9, 797-9) | 12291 (44) | 115 11 (56) | 4367 (16) | 5889 (29) |
| Other specified medical causes | 1899 (7) | 1045 (5) | 4414 (16) | 2804 (14) |
| No cause given in VSD (hence probably medical) | 983 (4) | 634 (3) | Nil | Nil |
| Total deaths – medical | 27 726 | 20 631 | 27 043 | 20 175 |
| Re-assigned by VA to external causes | *Excluded from the study | 683 | 456 | |
| Total deaths (medical causes+external causes) | 27 726 | 20 631 | 27 726 | 20 631 |
*Deaths(M: 3644; F:1644) that were assigned by the Vital Statistics Department(VSD) to non-medical causes were excluded from the study