Abstract
IntroductionGlobal mortality trends have changed over time and are expected to continue changing with a reduction in communicable diseases and an increase of non-communicable disease. Increased survival of children beyond five years may change mortality patterns for these children. There are few studies in Africa that explore the causes of mortality in children over five years. The objective of this study was to determine the mortality rate and clinical profiles of children aged 5-17 years who died in six Kenyan hospitals in 2013.MethodsRetrospective review of patients’ medical records to abstract data on diagnosis for those who died in year 2013. Data was analysed to provide descriptive statistics and explored differences in mortality rates between age groups and gender.ResultsWe retrieved 4,520 patient records. The in-hospital mortality rate was 3.5% (95%CI 3.0-4.1) with variations in deaths between the ages and gender. Among the deaths, 60% suffered from communicable diseases, maternal and nutritional causes; 41.3% suffered from non-communicable diseases. A further 11.9% succumbed to traumatic injuries. The predominant clinical diagnoses among patients who died were HIV/AIDS, respiratory tract infections and malaria.ConclusionInfectious causes had the highest proportion of diagnoses among children aged 5-17 years who died.
Highlights
Global mortality trends have changed over time and are expected to continue changing with a reduction in communicable diseases and an increase of non-communicable disease
The burden of disease studies have shown that communicable diseases are the leading cause of global mortality, with a transition underway as non-communicable diseases are on the rise [1]
Most of the deaths occurred in younger children aged 5-9 years of age (40.8%), the age specific mortality proportion was highest in the age group 10-14 years
Summary
Global mortality trends have changed over time and are expected to continue changing with a reduction in communicable diseases and an increase of non-communicable disease. Non-communicable diseases cause greater morbidity and mortality in children than communicable diseases [1,2,3, 7]. Communicable diseases have been the leading cause of mortality and still remain so in Sub-Saharan Africa, unlike in developed countries where non-communicable causes are on the increase [2, 12,13,14]. These communicable diseases include infections like malaria, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, tuberculosis (TB) and diarrhoea, especially for younger children [2, 9, 15]. Noncommunicable diseases, mental illness and substance abuse play a role in adolescent mortality in Africa; very little is known about their contribution to mortality in developing countries as they are not well documented as in the high-income countries [2]
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