Mortality from non-communicable diseases and associated risk factors in Zambia; analysis of the sample vital registration with verbal autopsy 2015/2016.

"Declarations Ethical approval and consent to participateThe 2015/16 SAVVY survey was carried out with ethical approval from the University of Zambia Biomedical Research Ethics Committee. Given that verbal autopsy (VA) involved interviewing the next of kin of the deceased, written informed consent was diligently obtained from each interviewee before proceeding with the interviews. All survey participants willingly volunteered to participate, and the dataset used, authorized by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security, was anonymized before being made publicly accessible. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding No funding was received."

"This study used data from Sample Vital Registration with Verbal Autopsy (SAVVY) 2015/16 [Zambia] to determine the factors associated with mortality from NCDs. The SAVVY (2015/16) was conducted by the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship (DNRPC), in collaboration with the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the Ministry of Health (MoH). The study was conducted in 10 provinces. The survey used the WHO standard methodology for 2015/16 SAVVY to report the leading causes of death in Zambia. The SAVVY was a cross-sectional retrospective and nationally representative survey. The main objective of the survey was to produce estimates of nationally representative age and sex cause-specific mortality fractions in Zambia (SAVVY, 2015/16) []. The SAVVY used three different types of WHO standardized data collection instruments: The Verbal Autopsy (VA) Questionnaire for deaths of children under the age of 4 weeks, the VA Questionnaire for deaths of children between the ages of 4 weeks to 14 years, and the VA Questionnaire for deaths of adults aged 15 and older. The following questions were used as the foundation for VA interviews: " Is there a usual member of this household who died in the last 12 months?“; “Was this person male or female?“, and “How old was this person?” The VA questionnaire for deaths of people aged 15 years and over, which was the questionnaire of interest to the study, then collected more detailed information about the deceased person on age at death, sex, marital status, occupation status at the time of death, education level, cause of death, and risk factors."