A STUDY OF IN-HOSPITAL ADULT (15-60 YEARS) MORTALITY IN A NIGERIAN TERTIARY CARE CENTRE
Uchendu Obiora Jude
Department of Histopathology
Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State
Email: ojlinksent@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT:
Adult mortality is serious public health concern and better understanding of its structure is invaluable to improving adult survival. The study aims at evaluating the mortality pattern of adults (15-60 years) admitted into Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria (DELSUTH). The study is 3 years (2016-2018) descriptive, retrospective study of adult deaths in DELSUTH, using the parameters of age, sex, cause of death and month of death. Analysis was done with SPSS version 22. In 3 years, 604 adult deaths within the age range of 15-60 years were documented, representing 56.6% of the hospital mortality, consisting of 319 males and 285 females with a mean age of 42.49 years and a male to female ratio of 1:1.1. The months of lowest number of deaths were in May and September; while the peaks were in April and July. The proportion of deaths in 2016, 2017 and 2018 are 22.2%, 43.4% and 36.4% respectively. Non-communicable disease (NCD), communicable disease (CD) and fatal injuries accounted for 393 (65.1%), 115 (19.0) and 96 (15.9%) deaths with cerebrovascular accident, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Road Traffic Accident (RTA) being the leading cause of each respective group. Adult mortality is relatively common, affects more males than females and is more common among the older age groups. NCDs are the leading cause of death while AIDS and RTA accounted for majority of CD and injury fatalities respectively.
Keyword: Adult, diseases, mortality, Non-communicable disease
