Probabilistic Methods for Verbal Autopsy Interpretation: InterVA Robustness in Relation to Variations in A Priori Probabilities

摘要

BackgroundInterVA is a probabilistic method for interpreting verbal autopsy (VA) data. It uses a priori approximations of probabilities relating to diseases and symptoms to calculate the probability of specific causes of death given reported symptoms recorded in a VA interview. The extent to which InterVA's ability to characterise a population's mortality composition might be sensitive to variations in these a priori probabilities was investigated.