Background: The pattern of morbidity and mortality reflects the burden of disease in a particular community. This pattern shows geographic variations between communities and countries. The knowledge of the pattern of diseases and their contribution to mortality in a given country is very important in evaluating its health care delivery system. Such knowledge is important for health planning and for improving the healthcare services in that particular nation. We set out to study the mortality pattern in our medical wards.
Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study that reviewed the causes of death in the medical wards of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano between January 2001 and December 2003 (three years). The data were obtained from the admission and discharge/death register, patients' case records, the weekly as well as quarterly mortality reviews. The SPSS version 10 was used to analyse the data.
Results: A total of 3369 patients were admitted over the 3 year study period. Of these 2518 (74.7%) were discharged or referred and 851 patients died, giving an overall mortality rate of 25.3%. The male to female admission ratio was 1.6:1. Majority of deaths, 714 (83.9%) occurred after 24 hours of admission. The most important causes of death were infectious diseases other than HIV/AIDS (17.9%), cerebrovascular disease (17%), HIV/AIDS (13.6%), chronic renal failure (12.5%) and diseases of the circulatory system (11.9%).
Conclusion: Mortality in the medical wards reflects the emerging trend of mixed disease spectrum burden comprising communicable and non communicable diseases. Public health education, raising the socio-economic status of our people as well as improving the standards of our health care facilities and personnel would prevent a large proportion of deaths from medical wards.