The Epidemiology of Human Mortality in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, 2016

Background: This article presents the most recent mortality data in West Azerbaijan Province (WAP) of Iran in 2016 based on selected characteristics, including age, sex, state of residence, and cause of death. Methods: After the local Ethics Committee approval, we obtained the data for this systematic database study from the local health registration office. The causes of death are processed following the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10). The vital statistics were refined from the yearbooks of the National Organization for Civil Registration. Results: In 2016, a total of 14688 deaths were registered in the Health Death Registration System (HDRS) and 14622 in the Civil Death Registration System (CDRS) of WAP (~4% of Iran’s mortality). The Crude Mortality Rate (CMR) was 4.30 per 1000, showing an increase of 7.5% from the 2011 rate. Of the deceased, 56.9% were males, and 60% were attributed to urban areas. On average, men died 4 years earlier than women (61.2 vs 65.3 years, respectively). The major causes of death in 2016 remained the same as in 2011. Conclusion: The pattern of human mortality in WAP is comparatively consistent with the other regions of Iran except for the higher rate of neoplasms (19.6% compared to 10.7% of the country average) and the lower ratio of certain infectious and parasitic diseases (1% compared to 3.8% of the national average). There was a significant difference in registering the state of residence between HDRS and CDRS, which is highly recommended for further investigation in future studies.