BackgroundInjuries are noted to be an important cause of death among adolescents. There is however limited data on the injury related deaths among adolescents in Ghana.FindingsUsing data from post-mortem records derived from the Department of Pathology of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Accra Ghana from 2001 to 2003, the causes of injury related deaths among adolescents 10 to 19 years were analyzed by gender and age groups 10 to 14 and 15 to 19 years. There were 151 injury-related deaths constituting 17% of the autopsies performed among adolescents in the study period. The male-to-female ratio was 2.1:1. Drowning was the most common cause of death (37%) in the study population. This was followed by road traffic accidents (RTA) (33%). Over 70% of the RTA victims were pedestrians knocked downed by a vehicle. Deaths from electrocution, poisoning, burns, stab/gunshot, hanging and other miscellaneous causes (example blast injury, traumatic injury from falling debris, fall from height) made up the remaining 30% of the injury related mortality. Among males and in both age categories, drowning was the leading cause of death. In females, the highest mortality was from road traffic accidents accounting for almost half (49%) of the deaths; significantly more than that occurring in males (25%, p = .004).ConclusionsFindings from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital post-mortem data on adolescents show that drowning and road traffic accidents are the leading causes of injury-related mortality. Appropriate injury reducing interventions are needed to facilitate a decrease in these preventable deaths.

BackgroundThere is limited data on adolescent mortality particularly from developing countries with unreliable death registration systems. This calls for the use of other sources of data to ascertain cause of adolescent mortality. The objective of this study was to describe the causes of death among Ghanaian adolescents 10 to 19 years in Accra, Ghana utilizing data from autopsies conducted in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).FindingsOut of the 14,034 autopsies carried out from 2001 to 2003 in KBTH, 7% were among adolescents. Of the 882 deaths among adolescents analyzed, 402 (45.6%) were females. There were 365 (41.4%) deaths from communicable disease, pregnancy related conditions and nutritional disorders. Non-communicable diseases accounted for 362 (41%) cases and the rest were attributable to injuries and external causes of morbidity and mortality. Intestinal infectious diseases and lower respiratory tract infections were the most common communicable causes of death collectively accounting for 20.5% of total deaths. Death from blood diseases was the largest (8.5%) among the non-communicable conditions followed by neoplasms (7%). Males were more susceptible to injuries than females (χ2 = 13.45, p = .000). At least five out of ten specific causes of death were as a result of infections with pneumonia and typhoid being the most common. Sickle cell disease was among the top three specific causes of death. Among the females, 27 deaths (6.7%) were pregnancy related with most of them being as a result of abortion.ConclusionsThe autopsy data from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital can serve as a useful source of information on adolescent mortality. Both communicable and non-communicable diseases accounted for most deaths highlighting the need for health care providers to avoid complacency in their management of adolescents presenting with these diseases.

This study, and others, are being carried out in order to establish a Forensic Anthropology databank on age estimation and sex determination of skeletonized remains in Ghana. An osteometric study of sexual dimorphism in the sternal end of the right fourth rib on 346 consecutive coroner's autopsy cases (221 males, 125 females) of known age, sex, and race was conducted. The height and width of the sternal end of the rib were measured in each case. The sample was analyzed in three groups: young (<30 years), old (≥30 years), and total sample (total group). Stepwise discriminant function analysis showed that the accuracy of sex determination varied from 80% in the young and 74% in the old groups to 78% for the total group. Statistical analysis of the results obtained when the functions derived from the study were tested using another batch of ribs showed the functions to be effective and reliable in determining sex. When functions derived from a previous study of American Whites were used to determine sex in our study sample, the vast majority of males were misclassified as females. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a Black African population has been studied osteometrically to evaluate sexual dimorphism in the sternal end of the fourth rib.