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Verbal Autopsy (often abbreviated VA) refers to a form of health and demographic survey where family or caretakers of a recently deceased person answer a structured questionnaire to determine the cause of death. Verbal autopsies are most commonly conducted in countries which lack comprehensive civil registration and vital statistics systems.

Use
The primary use of verbal autopsy is for population health measurement in low-resource settings. Many countries and communities do not have a comprehensive system of medically certifying and registering death certificates, and thus have little information about the population-level causes of mortality. To gain a basic understanding of the health problems which are leading to mortality in such a population, verbal autopsies are often conducted. Other countries, such as China and Brazil, utilize verbal autopsy to improve existing civil registration systems, by following up on cases which either were not issued a death certificate or were issued a death certificate which does not contain a medically certified cause of death.

Methodology
Typically, a verbal autopsy is performed with a structured questionnaire. VA questionnaires usually consist of a list of symptoms, signs and conditions, and respondents are asked whether or not the deceased individual displayed such symptoms in the weeks or months prior to death. Many symptoms and signs are followed up (if confirmed) with a question about duration or severity of the symptom. Numerous standardized and idiosyncratic questionnaires exist. Notably, the World Health Organization endorses a standard questionnaire, which is commonly used around the world.

Once collected, a particular challenge is to determine a diagnosis based on questionnaire responses. Until recently, the norm for doing so has been physician review, whereby a medical professional examines individual VAs and assesses the probable cause of death. VA researchers have put into question however whether physician-diagnosed VA is an effective use of both VAs and physicians' time, as the reliability of the diagnoses have been doubted, and the time required of the physicians to examine VAs may be prohibitively expensive. In response, a number of automated diagnosis techniques have been developed, which also vary in reliability.

Limitations
Verbal autopsies are limited in the amount and quality of epidemiological information they can provide. One such limitation is the ability of a lay respondent to accurately recall symptoms of a deceased person, especially months after the event. Likewise, many symptoms, such as cough, fever or chest pain, are shared among numerous diseases or conditions, a fact which limits the sensitivity of VAs as an instrument.

Notable Verbal Autopsy Studies
A recent review has identified NNNN separate verbal autopsy sites worldwide since 1980. Some of the most high-profile VA studies have been either those with unusually large sample sizes, or longitudinal studies which measure causes of death in a population for many years. Below is a non-exhaustive list of notable VA studies:
 * India 2004: "The Million Deaths Study"
 * Mozambique 2008: Inquérito Sobre Causas de Mortalidade (INCAM)
 * Bangladesh 1964-Present: Matlab Upazila

Global Congress on Verbal Autopsy
Two research conferences (in 2011 and 2013) have assembled in recent years to serve as a "forum for discussion, collaboration, and advancement of the field of verbal autopsy". Both conferences were organized by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the University of Washington and the Journal of Population Health Metrics as well as the University of Queensland (in 2011) and University of Melbourne (in 2013).