The pattern of mortality in Dar es Salaam

Objective: To assess mortality in Dar es Salaam by using data from the grave yards. Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional grave yard based study. Setting: Kinondoni grave yard (Kinondoni), Msimbazi grave yard (Ilala) and Chang’ombe grave yard (Temeke) in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. Results: The study involved 1462 graves with 741 (50.7%) being of males. Mortality in underfives (0-4) was 11.1%, 7.7% in 5-19 years, 55.1% in 20-49 years while 12.5% comprised of above 65 years age group. Mortality trend was high among underfives then decreased at 5-19 age groups and again increased up to 30-34 years then decreased gradually. The age group 30-34 years made the peak value with 12.3% of all deaths. The study also showed that mortality is increasing with time as 1.7% of deaths occurred in 1980-1984 while 55.8% occurred in 2000-2004. Comparative analysis showed that there was concordant increase in numbers of reported AIDS cases as well as of mortality in Dar es Salaam from the year 1985 onwards. Before 1990’s more males were dying compared to females but gradually the situation has reversed with time despite the constant general population ratio in Dar es Salaam. Conclusion: Mortality was found to be high in underfives and people aged 20 to 49 years. The distribution pattern of deaths tally with the distribution pattern of deaths caused by Malaria and HIV/AIDS. Moreover both sex are similarly affected. That method of assessing mortality by studying graveyard data might be reliable to conclude that HIV/AIDS is a major cause of death.