Health Data Collection at MUCHAP involves continuous, population-based tracking of demographic, health, and socio-economic information from over 100,000 individuals in the Iganga–Mayuge communities to generate high-quality evidence for public health interventions, research, and policy-making in Uganda.
Routine Mortality Surveillance and Verbal Autopsy
As part of longitudinal surveillance, MUCHAP monitors mortality and cause-of death performed through Verbal Autopsy (VA) - for all deaths that occur in the cohort population. Verbal autopsy is a standardized method of ascertaining cause of death basing on the prevailing social circumstances at the time of the last illness that caused the death of an individual.
Reported death cases are followed up by a team of trained research assistants to perform verbal autopsy interviews.
Using a World Health Organization (WHO) standardized questionnaire for death, research assistants interview immediate caretakers of the deceased who were present at the time of the last illness that caused the death. Collected data is submitted to 2 independent physicians who reviews one record at a time and assign the most probable cause of death, following the WHO International Classification of Disease profile. The inter-VA algorithm has been introduced to compute cause of death. Annually, about 500 to 600 deaths are registered and cause of death determined.
