Executive summary

South Africa National Cause-of-Death Validation Project

South Africa has a well-established Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) System with a high proportion of deaths being registered. However, the quality of the cause of death statistics is considered sub-optimal with a high proportion of ill-defined causes, extensive underreporting of HIV as an underlying cause of death and misclassification of injury deaths.

The South African National Cause-of-Death Validation (SA NCODV) project was implemented by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and partners to validate CRVS cause of death information by linking CRVS data to cause of death information obtained from medical records, forensic pathology records, and VA interviews for a national sample of deaths. The main purpose of the study was to compare the underlying cause of death from the CRVS data with the highest level of information collected in the study (based on the hierarchy of forensic pathology record followed by medical records and then VA) in order to estimate correction factors to derive cause of death profiles that are adjusted for the poor-quality information.

This study was reviewed and approved by the SAMRC Ethics Committees. Support was obtained from the National Department of Health (NDOH), the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). Permissions were obtained from each provincial Department of Health (DOH) and health facility included in the study. At the time of registering a death, information about the study was provided and consent obtained from informants for the research team to contact them at a later date. Informed consent was obtained from the respondent for each completed VA interview.

View the complete South African National Cause-of-Death Validation - Report 3