Postmortem investigations and identification of multiple causes of child deaths: An analysis of findings from the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network.
Robert F BreimanDianna M BlauPortia MutevedziVictor AkeloInácio MandomandoIkechukwu U OgbuanuSamba O SowLola MadridShams El ArifeenMischka GarelNana Bukiwe ThwalaDickens Otieno OnyangoAntonio SitoeIma-Abasi BasseyAdama Mamby KeitaAddisu AlemuMuntasir AlamSana MahtabDickson GethiRosauro VaroJulius OjulongSolomon SamuraAshka MehtaAlexander M IbrahimAfruna RahmanPio VitorinoVicky L BaillieJanet AgayaMilagritos D TapiaNega AsefaAtique Iqbal ChowdhuryJ Anthony G ScottEmily S GurleyKaren L KotloffAmara JambaiSozinho AcácioBeth A Tippett BarrShabir Ahmed MadhiCynthia G Whitneynull nullPublished in: PLoS medicine (2021)
Including conditions that appear anywhere in the causal chain, rather than considering underlying condition alone, markedly changed the proportion of deaths attributed to various diagnoses, especially LRI, sepsis, and meningitis. While CHAMPS methods cannot determine when 2 conditions cause death independently or may be synergistic, our findings suggest that considering the chain of events leading to death can better guide research and prevention priorities aimed at reducing child deaths.