1.1 Introduction
Death is one of the vital events recorded in a Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) System and its documentation is the basis for the legal approval for the burial or other disposal of deceased individuals (Unstats, 2001; Adedini et al., 2011). Other benefits of death registration include: veritable source of data for epidemiological investigations, recovery of inheritance and insurance claims, to substantiate an assertion of death and to avoid problems with law enforcement agents in case of need for conveyance of a corpse (WHO, 2014). Inadequate documentation and certification of death by natural causes may delay timely public health interventions such as in situations where death arises from an evolving disease outbreak. Furthermore, underreporting of death from unnatural causes may result in delay or denial of justice.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Research had showed that death could occur to any one no matter the age factor at what is important is that certain death escaped being unregistered, but his research focuses on those death that were recorded in the Federal Medical Centres. Death registration has not been taken serious in our country, this give the researcher concern and a curiously to work on statistical analysis of death rate.
The death of a woman during pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the site and duration of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes is termed maternal death. Maternal death may be classified as maternal mortality or maternal morbidity depending on the time frame death occurred. Maternal mortality refers to deaths due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth.
World Health Organization (WHO) (2016) defined maternal mortality as death of either a pregnant woman or death of a woman within 42 days of delivery, miscarriage, termination or ectopic pregnancy providing the death is associated with pregnancy or its treatment. On the other hand, maternal morbidity refers to the period immediately after child birth. The range of things that can go wrong during the puerperal (which by convention covers the first six weeks after childbirth or abortion) is very wide. Some disorders during this period are the result of complications that occur only during pregnancy and childbirth.
The risk of maternal mortality is highest for adolescent girls under 15 years, complications in pregnancy and childbirth is a leading cause of death among adolescent girls in developing countries (Patton et al., 2009). Women in developing countries have, on average more pregnancies than women in developed countries, and therefore their lifetime risk of death due to pregnancy is higher. Lifetime risk of a woman who will undergo maternal death the probability that a 15 year old woman will eventually die from a maternal cause is 1 in 4900 in developed countries, compared to 1 in 180 in developing countries. In countries designated as fragile states, the risk is 1 in 54; showing the consequences from breakdowns in health systems (Conde-Agudelo et al., 2004).
Therefore, in Imo State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to carry out a Statistical Analysis of Death Rate in Imo State from 2018 - 2021 using Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Owerri as a case study.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that in our society today, the number of deaths is in the increase every year. The death seems to affect and reduce the number of population of the society in an alarming rate. Different age group also suffers the dangers of losing most of its people to the cold hand of death, through diseases, child birth, and accident.
The research is being carried out to know the age groups that experience the highest number of death in the year under study. The research will help to know if there is any relationship between the death in male and female.
Finally, the research will try to find out the effort the government is making towards the reduction of death s rate in the society under investigation and the trend of death in the society.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to carry out a Statistical Analysis of Death Rate in Imo State from 2018 - 2021 using Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Owerri as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To determine the death rate for the various years of study (2018 - 2021) and the number of deaths occurring within the years of study;
- To investigate the causes of increased death in the area under study;
- To determine which of the age group is mostly affected by death;
- To know with the number of death according to diseases that occurred between 2018 - 2021; and
- To determine the number of woman that died as a result of pregnancy. This will help the government to fight against such in the future.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What is the death rate for the various years of study (2018 - 2021) and the number of deaths occurring within the years of study?
- What are the causes of increased death in the area under study?
- What age group is mostly affected by death in the area under study?
- What is the number of death according to diseases that occurred between 2018 - 2021?
- What is the number of woman that died as a result of pregnancy?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant difference in the deaths according to Age groups.
- H1: There is significant difference in the means of the death according to Age group.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There are no significant differences in the means of death according to the causes of the death.
- H1: There are significant differences in the causes of the death.
1.7 Significance of Study
This research work is carried out to find out the various causes of death in the society that is being recorded by the Federal Medical Centre Owerri is the factors that causes more death, than the other and also the age group that has the highest number of death.
The research will equally indicate the total number of death that occurred hospital management to forecast and prevent such incidence.
The study will help to highlight the number of patients that died of various diseases from 2018 - 2021 which enable the government to fight against the effect of disease in the next years.
The number of death according to Age group and according to the causes of death in the hospital will be known, this will help the ministry of health to know the group that die most and the latest causes of death and how to prevent it.
Finally, the research also gives insight on how the future forecast of death rate in the society will look like and the possible way to reduce the death rate to it's bearest.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Statistical Analysis of Death Rate in Imo State from 2018 - 2021 using Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Owerri as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
