Mortality records in one district in the capital of Turkey, 2007

Objectives: To determine some socio-demographic characteristics related to deaths and calculate the age, sex and cause-specific mortality rates.  
Material and Methods: The data obtained from the municipality records in this retrospective cohort study. 1428 deaths were recorded; no data were found for deaths occurred in September, November and October. As socio-demographic characteristics, name, surname, birth and death date, marital status, residential address were recorded. The causes of death were evaluated as primary, intermediate and final by researchers, accordingly the list used by the Turkish Statistical Institute.
Results: 54.8% of deaths were male; 1.3% was under one, and 67.2% was 65 years old and more. In only 9 deaths, the primary, intermediate and final causes of death were written. There were no data on primary cause in 46.9%, on intermediate in 74.8%, and on final in 63.5% of deaths. The first three primary causes were cancers (21.7%), circulatory diseases (12.5%), and nervous system diseases (6.3%) while circulatory diseases (33.6%) were the first for final causes. The crude death rate was 1.7, male death rate was 1.9, and female death rate was 1.5 per 1000 per 9 months. The first three cause-specific death rates were 3.6/1000 for cancers, 2.1/1000 for circulatory diseases, and 1.1/1000 for nervous system diseases. Under-5 mortality rate was 0.5/1000, proportional mortality rate was 3.0%, over-65 mortality rate was 20.1/1000, and proportional mortality rate was 67.2%.
There were problems and deficiencies in recording the causes of deaths. The death certificates should be filled readable and understandable by the physicians, and specified as primary, intermediate and final. The records in the municipality should be periodically checked by the authorities, and on-the-job training should be planned.
Key words: Mortality, cause of death, municipality, rate