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Background: Information on causes of adult deaths is relatively scarce in developing
countries where vital registration systems are often incomplete or nonexistent and many
deaths occur at home.
Objective: To obtain a community based estimate of the specific causes of mortality and
the burden of chronic morbidity in an urban adult population with major emphasis on
determining the pattern of HIV/AIDS mortality in Addis Ababa.
Method: A cross sectional quantitative study was done from Dec. 2004-Jan. 2005 on
3600 randomly selected households in Addis Ababa. An appropriate VA tool and
chronic morbidity assessment questionnaire were utilized for data collection.
Results: The crude death rate was 8.1 per 1000 population per year. The cause specific
mortality fraction of AIDS/TB , noncommunicable disease and accidents were 44.3%,
15.3% and 11.2% respectively. Age and sex specific mortality picture of AIDS showed
that at early adult age (20-29) years, females exhibited a very high death rate than their
male counterpart, which is high at 29-34 years of age Seventy five percent of deaths
were found to have occurred at home with health institution deaths accounting for only
21%. Hypertension, asthma, cardiac problem and psychiatric illnesses were the
commonest chronic illnesses identified during the study. AIDS mortality fraction is still
higher as compared to other causes of deaths in Addis Ababa. The burden of AIDS
mortality is higher in the center of the city where socio-economic status is low and
prostitution and sex marketing is high as compared to the outer city.
Conclusion and Recommendation: The proportional mortality due to AIDS is high as
compared to other causes of deaths in Addis Ababa. At early adult age females exhibited
higher AIDS specific mortality rate than males for which it is high at later age. Chronic
non- communicable diseases are also posing significant health problems in terms of
chronic morbidity and mortality in the city. Continuation of such community-based
surveillance of cause of deaths is recommended. |
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