Martínez H, Reyes H, Tomé P, Guiscafré H, Gutiérrez G
Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, D.F.
Bol Med Hosp Infant Mex. 1993 Jan;50(1):57-63.
The verbal autopsy (VA) is a technique that has been used since 1931, but it wasn't until the last decade that it has been more widely used by different investigators to study mortality both in infancy/childhood and adulthood. The VA consists of an interview directed to a care-giver (usually the mother) close to the deceased subject, and its objective is to disclose information about the cause of death. The VA has been particularly useful in those places where a reliable record of mortality is unavailable or nonexisting. This paper describes the assumptions on which the VA is based, and highlights its most important methodological aspects. Lastly, we stress the use of the VA as an useful too to assess the process associated with mortality, including the family's decision-making process to look for medical care as well as the response and characteristics of the medical care system. In this respect, we point out to the usefulness of the VA as an interface between epidemiology and ethnography, and stress its potential impact as a tool to learn more about the process of health-seeking behaviors, from the points of view of mothers and physicians.
口头尸检（VA）是一种自1931年以来就已使用的技术，但直到最近十年，它才被不同的研究人员更广泛地用于研究婴儿期/儿童期和成年期的死亡率。口头尸检包括对死者身边的照顾者（通常是母亲）进行访谈，其目的是披露有关死亡原因的信息。在那些没有可靠的死亡率记录或根本不存在此类记录的地方，口头尸检特别有用。本文描述了口头尸检所基于的假设，并突出了其最重要的方法学方面。最后，我们强调将口头尸检用作评估与死亡相关过程的有用工具，包括家庭寻求医疗护理的决策过程以及医疗护理系统的反应和特点。在这方面，我们指出口头尸检作为流行病学与民族志之间接口的有用性，并强调其作为一种工具从母亲和医生的角度更多地了解寻求健康行为过程的潜在影响。
