Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of deaths by study group
| 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%) |
Data are in (%). Key symptoms refer to a subset of symptoms of each age group that are essential to distinguish various CODs
*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