Tuberculosis is still the major killer of adults in Southern Ethiopia: An evidence from Southern Ethiopia

Background: Causes of adult mortality are important indicators of the wellbeing of a community. Little emphasis is given to the causes of adult mortalities especially in low-income countries such as Ethiopia, where estimating the exact causes of adult mortality is more difficult due to lack of data and absence of strong vital statistics. The aim of this study was to identify the causes of adult mortality in Arba Minch health and demographic surveillance site. Methods and materials: The study used surveillance data conducted in Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Site from 2009 to 2017. The causes of the mortality were determined using verbal autopsy method site using standard data collection tools and procedures. The data were entered into an excel database system by the data clerks. Data cleaning and analysis was done using STATA 14 software and Microsoft Excel. Descriptions of the adult deaths were made by various sociodemographic characteristics. The specific and broad causes of death were identified. Results: A total of 943 adult deaths were recorded in the Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Site in the eight surveillance periods. Majority of the deceased were females (54%), married (62%), from rural (88.85%), aged between 55 to 74 years (32.8%), unable to read and write (96.78%), and farmers (45%). Tuberculosis was the leading (16.8%) killer followed by malaria (9.7%). The major broad causes of death were infectious and parasitic diseases (49.2%) followed by external causes of death (13.5%). Conclusion: The communicable diseases, especially tuberculosis, are still the leading causes of adult mortality yielding to a higher adult mortality. Much efforts and emphasis should be still given to control infectious diseases with the main focus on controlling tuberculosis.