Mortality trend in tertiary care hospital in a metropolitan city, India: a six years record based study

Background: Mortality data from hospitalized patients reflect the causes of major illness and health care seeking behaviour of the community as well as standard of care being provided. Mortality data is helpful for early outbreak detection and control, identifying diseases of public health importance for resource allocation, assessing the success of national health programmes, and analysing socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental factors related to deaths. Methods: This is a record based cross-sectional study conducted at the medical record department of a tertiary care hospital in a metropolitan city, Thane. Complete enumeration of data of deaths of patients in a tertiary care teaching hospital from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2023 were considered for analysis. Related frequency and percentage were drawn for independent variable. Trend analysis and association between variable has been checked at 5% level of significance. Results: There were 9,087 deaths recorded in the period of six years, with the highest mortality rate in 2020 and the lowest in 2019. Female deaths comprised 38.76% and males 61.24% of the total. Mortality patterns varied by age and 0-10 years group having the highest mortality rate (p<0.05). Most deaths occurred within 24 hours of admission (45.15%), primarily in the medicine department (67.71%). Conclusions: The study noted a peak in 2020 mortality rates, potentially due to crises like COVID-19, highlighting gender disparities and high vulnerability in children aged 0-10. In order to successfully reduce mortality risks, it highlights the necessity of focused healthcare interventions catered to age- and gender-specific health issues.