Study on Unnatural Death Patterns in Dhaka City

Abstract

Unnatural deaths are the deaths which are caused by any means other than any disease1. Unnatural death is an indicator of social and mental health. This retrospective study was done to ascertain the pattern of unnatural deaths, whose autopsies were performed by Forensic medicine dept. of Dhaka Medical College from 1st Jan, 1996 to 31st Dec, 2000. A total 10436 death recorded were analysed to see their age, sex etc. The study revealed that total number of unnatural deaths were 9413, out of them males were higher than females ( M- 75.78% & F- 24.22%). Results showed that Accidental deaths were 77.22%, Homicidal deaths were 14.02% and Suicidal deaths were 10.76%. Accidental & Homicidal deaths were more common in male, whereas suicidal deaths were more common in female. This study suggest an extensive studies to formulate strategies to prevent those unnatural death to improve the situation. Key Words: Unnatural Death Patterns; Suicidal; Accidental DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/akmmcj.v2i2.8167 AKMMC J 2011; 2(2): 18-20

Profile of unnatural deaths in a teaching hospital of West Bengal, India

“…homicidal or caused by unintentional injury in accidental manner. As in current study unnatural death affected the most productive age groups also in study by Prithvirajsinh et al and Buchade et al 9,10 Similar findings were also reported from South-West Nigeria by Esan et al and from Dhaka by Khan et al 11,12 Regarding gender distribution, similar findings of male preponderance was by Santosh et al where 80% of the deceased were male, Bansal from Ahmedabad found more than 2/3 rd of the victims to be male, Khan also got similar unnatural death pattern in Dhaka city. [12][13][14] But Chakrabarty et al from Bankura got female preponderance and Prithvirajsinh et al got huge number of female burn patients over all the age groups.…”

“…As in current study unnatural death affected the most productive age groups also in study by Prithvirajsinh et al and Buchade et al 9,10 Similar findings were also reported from South-West Nigeria by Esan et al and from Dhaka by Khan et al 11,12 Regarding gender distribution, similar findings of male preponderance was by Santosh et al where 80% of the deceased were male, Bansal from Ahmedabad found more than 2/3 rd of the victims to be male, Khan also got similar unnatural death pattern in Dhaka city. [12][13][14] But Chakrabarty et al from Bankura got female preponderance and Prithvirajsinh et al got huge number of female burn patients over all the age groups. 9,15 As in current study, Hindus comprised majority in study by Bansal in Gujarat, Chakrabarty P from West Bengal and Kumar A from Varanasi in contrast to findings of Muslim predominance in Bangladesh by Khan et al 12,[14][15][16] As in the present study rural victims outnumbered the urban victims in studies by Haralkar et al, Bariar LM, Singh et al, Chakrabarty et al 15,[17][18][19] Regarding the cause of death, the current study findings had similarities to that conducted in North India by Sharma 13,15,[20][21][22][23] Period of survival to be within 24 hours was in accordance to the current study was also found in Buchade et al and Mangal et al but it varied to be more fatal on arrival to health facility especially in burn victims in study by Memchoubi et al 10,24,25 As suicide attributed manner of death in majority followed by accidents and homicides in the present study, Santosh et al got majority of accidents followed by suicide and homicide which was similar to that by Chakrabarty et al, Kitulwatte et al whereas Khan et al reported accidents were majority followed by homicide and suicides in Dhaka.…”

“…[12][13][14] But Chakrabarty et al from Bankura got female preponderance and Prithvirajsinh et al got huge number of female burn patients over all the age groups. 9,15 As in current study, Hindus comprised majority in study by Bansal in Gujarat, Chakrabarty P from West Bengal and Kumar A from Varanasi in contrast to findings of Muslim predominance in Bangladesh by Khan et al 12,[14][15][16] As in the present study rural victims outnumbered the urban victims in studies by Haralkar et al, Bariar LM, Singh et al, Chakrabarty et al 15,[17][18][19] Regarding the cause of death, the current study findings had similarities to that conducted in North India by Sharma 13,15,[20][21][22][23] Period of survival to be within 24 hours was in accordance to the current study was also found in Buchade et al and Mangal et al but it varied to be more fatal on arrival to health facility especially in burn victims in study by Memchoubi et al 10,24,25 As suicide attributed manner of death in majority followed by accidents and homicides in the present study, Santosh et al got majority of accidents followed by suicide and homicide which was similar to that by Chakrabarty et al, Kitulwatte et al whereas Khan et al reported accidents were majority followed by homicide and suicides in Dhaka. 12,13,15,26 Esan et al as similar to the present study had significant positive association of suicide and homicide to productive age groups only; none of the other parameters were found to have any significant association in the binary logistic regression.…”

Comparative trends of accidental to intentional mortalities over a one-year period at a tertiary care centre

“…4,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, few studies have reported different trends with higher proportions of intentional fatalities. [14][15][16] Majority of the accidental deaths occurred due to road accidents (59.2%), burns (17.1%), falls from height (8.9%), poisoning (4.5%), electrocution (4.2%), train accidents (2.7%), other accidents (2.4%), animal injuries (0.5%), drowning (0.3%) and firearm related accidents (0.2%) as also reported by most other authors.…”

Homicide patterns for the last 20 years in South and South East Delhi, India

“…The 11-40 age group was found to be the most common in various studies. 1,[10][11][12][13][17][18][19] This age group is more exposed to violent trauma because of the lifestyle of this age group. Those in this age group bear the responsibility of society and are under stress for a range of reasons, which leads to conflict.…”