Causes of Death among Children Aged 5 to 14 Years Old from 2008 to 2013 in Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Ethiopia.
BACKGROUND
The global burden of mortality among children is still very huge though its trend has started declining following the improvements in the living standard. It presents serious challenges to the well-being of children in many African countries. Today, Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounts for about 50% of global child mortality. The overall objective of this study was to determine the magnitude and distribution of causes of death among children aged 5 to 14 year olds in the population of Kersa HDSS using verbal autopsy method for the period 2008 to 2013.


METHODS
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System(Kersa HDSS) was established in September 2007. The center consists of 10 rural and 2 urban kebeles which were selected randomly from 38 kebeles in the district. Thus this study was conducted in Kersa HDSS and data was taken from Kersa HDSS database. The study population included all children aged 5 to 14 years registered during the period of 2008 to 2013 in Kersa HDSS using age specific VA questionnaires. Data were extracted from SPSS database and analyzed using STATA.


RESULTS
A total of 229 deaths were recorded over the period of six years with a crude death rate of 219.6 per 100,000 population of this age group over the study period. This death rate was 217.5 and 221.5 per 100,000 populations for females and males, respectively. 75% of deaths took place at home. The study identified severe malnutrition(33.9%), intestinal infectious diseases(13.8%) and acute lower respiratory infections(9.2%) to be the three most leading causes of death. In broad causes of death classification, injuries have been found to be the second most cause of death next to communicable diseases(56.3%) attributing to 13.1% of the total deaths.


CONCLUSIONS
In specific causes of death classification severe malnutrition, intestinal infectious diseases and acute lower respiratory infections were the three leading causes of death where, in broad causes of death communicable diseases and injuries were among the leading causes of death. Hence, concerned bodies should take measures to avert the situation of mortality from these causes of death and further inferential analysis into the prevention and management of infectious diseases should also be taken.
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Harar Ethiopia.|Haramaya University, College of Computing and Informatics, Department of Statistics, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
Melkamu
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3466-1232
M
Dedefo
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Harar Ethiopia.|Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Harar, Ethiopia.
Desalew
D
Zelalem
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-Eth), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Biniyam
B
Eskinder
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Harar Ethiopia.|Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Harar, Ethiopia.
Nega
N
Assefa
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Harar Ethiopia.|Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Harar, Ethiopia.
Wondimye
W
Ashenafi
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Harar Ethiopia.|Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Harar, Ethiopia.
Negga
N
Baraki
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Harar Ethiopia.|Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Harar, Ethiopia.
Melake
M
Damena Tesfatsion
Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS), Harar Ethiopia.|Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Harar, Ethiopia.
Lemessa
L
Oljira
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-Eth), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ashenafi
A
Haile
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D001344:Autopsy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D046688:Child Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000401:mortality; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000401:mortality; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate