Incompleteness of Death Registration in Ghana: The Role of Mortuaries in the Registration Coverage of Ashanti Region

The study was done to find out how provision of mortuaries could help increase death registration coverage in the Ashanti Region. In a cross sectional survey of 20 districts (those with mortuaries and without), a structured questionnaire was administered to 204 relatives to seek their knowledge on deaths they registered in the year 2010; and 20 districts registrars of births and deaths to explore the problems associated with death registration. According to the relatives, 59.8% of the registered deaths expired at home compared to 33.3% deaths occurring in the hospitals and the remaining 6.9% were coroner's cases. Again, among the relatives, 46.1% were not aware of death registration and let alone knowing why they should register a death of a relative. In all the 20 districts studied, 95% had no computer. Eighty five percent of the registrars had only secondary education. Seventy percent of the districts had just one employed staff and 15% of the districts had no employed staff. It was observed in the present study that, the districts with mortuaries registered more deaths as compared to the districts without mortuaries. It is therefore evident that death registration coverage will increase if mortuaries are provided in the districts. Public education should be intensified on the need to register deaths and the registry given the needed assistance to perform.