Abstract: Objective:Available literatures on pattern of adult mortality in accident and emergency (A and E) department of health institutions in many developing countries have been virtually restricted to centres in urban areas. This study aimed at highlighting the basic demographic patterns, the frequency and causes of death in a centre in a rural area of a developing country. Methods:A retrospective analysis of patients' records admitted in A and E department of the Federal Medical Centre Ido Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria over a period of 2yearsfrom January 2011 to December 2012 was carried out. Analysis of data was done with simple descriptive statistics using Statistical Packaging for Social Science (SPSS Inc. Chicago IL) version 16. Results:A total number of 3162 patients attended the A and E department during the study period and there were 122 deaths. Male mortality was 76(62.0%) while female mortality was 46(38.0%) with male to female ratio 1:7:1. The age range was 15 – 87years with mean of 52.04 + 18.70years. More deaths occur in young and middle aged adults (70.4%). Deaths from non-communicable diseases (80.3%) were higher than that from communicable diseases (19.7%). The most common causes of deaths from the former were stroke and road traffic accident, while from the latter were sepsis, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in decreasing order. Conclusion:The commonest cause of death in adults is non-communicable disease at the prime productive age, worse in males than females. Many causes of deaths obtained in this report were comparable to what was obtained in urban centres except road traffic accident with lesser frequency and communicable diseases with higher frequency in rural centres.
Key words: Mortality, Accident, Emergency, Rural, Developing country.
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