About 900 non-medical surveyors do structured verbal autopsies for deaths recorded in these homes.

We conducted verbal autopsies for those who had died.

Methods: We used data from vital registrations, vital registration samples, and verbal autopsies to estimate mortality.

Conclusion: Our results confirm that national mortality statistics, which are partly based on verbal autopsies, must be carefully interpreted.

Modelled rates were compared to the rates measured directly from the 2004 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey and associated verbal autopsies.

Vital registrations and verbal autopsies provided information about deaths, and data on the prevalence and severity of epilepsy largely came from population representative surveys.