Demographic Profile of Unnatural Deaths; Autopsy Study at Tertiary Care Hospital of Southern Punjab

Abstract

Objectives: To illustrate the demographic profile of the victims of unnatural deaths with reference to gender, age, residential background, cause & manner of death to explore the trends of unnatural deaths in southern Punjab region for planning and implementing new strategies. Study design: Retrospective Study. Settings & Duration: Department of Forensic Medicine, Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan for the period of three years (1^st January, 2015 to 31^st December, 2017). Methodology: The record of 138 autopsies conducted by the Department of Forensic Medicine, Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan during the study period was examined in detail. The cases labeled as natural deaths by the hospital’s authorities, intra operative deaths, exhumations and those died in police encounters / custodial deaths were excluded. Purposive non-probability sampling technique was used for collection of data. The information collected from police papers, hospital record & autopsy reports were entered on pre-designed performa and subsequently analyzed by using SPSS version-23. Ages, Gender, residential background, cause & manner of death were the variables of study. The frequency and percentage of these parameters with regard to year wise stratification was calculated. Results: Out of the total 138 cases autopsied during the study period of three years; 46(33.3%) autopsies were conducted in 2015 and 40(28.9%) postmortem examination were conducted in 2016 while 52(37.6%) cases were autopsied in 2017. Gender distribution showed male predominance involving (79.8%) males and (20.2%) females.  Age group of 21-30 year was the most common victim of unnatural deaths involving 49(35.5%) cases. The extreme ages were least vulnerable to unnatural deaths and involved 6.5% cases of the age less than 10 years. Most significant cause of death was road traffic accidental in (63.27%) cases followed by drowning in (24.48%), railway accidents (6.1%) cases, electrocution (4.08%) and burn (2.04%) cases. As regard manner of death; Homicide was found more prevalent implicating (39.85%) cases while accident contributed in (35.5%) and suicide was responsible for (9.42%) cases of unnatural deaths while manner of death remained undetermined in (15.21%) cases. Conclusion: Males are the predominant victims of unnatural deaths probably due to social interaction and outdoor activities. Younger age group is the common victim of unnatural deaths. The most significant cause of death was trauma in road traffic accidents & the most prevalent manner of unnatural death was homicide; a measure of crime rate in the region. A significant number of deaths resulting from RTAs need proper reforms in terms of traffic regulation. Similarly, quality education & awareness, Law enforcement, financial / social supports are required to reduce the incidence of unnatural deaths.