AbstractsMedical & Health Science

Background: Levels and trends in overall adult mortality have important implications for health and social program. Globally, adult mortality rate has been declining in the period of 1990 and 2012 but not in sub Saharan countries. Despite this increase, adult mortality remains a neglected public health issue in Sub-Saharan Africa. Objective: To assess trends and identify determinants of adult mortality in Butajira, South Central Ethiopia Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted. The Butajira database running from 1987-2008 was extracted and analysed using STATA 12. The trend of adult mortality was computed using event history analysis and Poisson regression analysis was used to calculate Incidence Rate Ratio with 95% Confidence Interval. For the qualitative part, data were collected from eight interviwees which are incorporated from community leaders, staffs of health and agriculture offices and the BRHP to strengthen the result from quantitative part of the study and assess reasons responsible for the fluctuations of adult mortality from 1987-2008. Open code 3.6 Software was used to code and categorize qualitative data and themathic analysis was employed. Result: There was a significant decline in adult mortality, with some ups and downs in levels during the survey years.This was due to ill behaviours, social upheavals, food insecurity, health service related problems and occurrence of epidemics at different times.The incidence of adult mortality was found to be 6.57(6.33, 6.82) adult deaths per 1000 person years. There were higher incidences of female adult mortality with a level of (95%CI) 7.14 (6.78, 7.52). The incidence of adult mortality significantly increased with age. Married, divorced and widowed adults had higher incidence of death with adjusted IRR (95% CI) 1.68(1.51, 1.89), 2.89(2.09, 4.02) and 4.88 (4.23, 5.63) respectively compared to the singles. Adults who were illiterate, confessed in Muslim religion and did not have window for their houses had significantly higher incidence of death with IRR (95% CI) 1.12(1.02, 1.23), 1.15(1.05, 1.26) and 1.17(1.05, 1.29) respectively. Conclusion: The incidence of adult mortality showed a declining trend mainly due to social and behavioral changes and food security. Higher level of female adult mortality was registered and Age, religion, marital status, availability of windows were significantly associated with incidence of adult mortality. So those socio demographic factors which significantly determine adult mortality should have to be given emphasis and use them in different interventions by different sectors.Awareness creation with prevention of different diseases and ensuring food security are recommended to health and agricultural sectors respectively.Furthermore stakeholders are advised to work on decreasing the work burden of females and their empowerment. Advisors/Committee Members: WUBEGZEIR MEKONNEN (PhD) (advisor).