Head of Health Management Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, European University of Lefke Assist. Prof. Dr. Macide Artaç Özdal and Seda Behlül, a PhD student in Health Management, published an article on the causes of death in Northern Cyprus and the importance of accurate reporting methods in “The Open Public Health Journal”.

Özdal said, “Keeping the death records accurate and complete is important for the prevention of diseases that cause high rates of death in the society and for the intervention programs to be organized to improve the health of the society.” and by analyzing the crude death rates and the causes of death, the causes of death were ranked according to the death rates they caused.

Özdal: Identifying the diseases that cause deaths in the society is very important for developing disease prevention strategies.

Özdal continued her information about the study as follows; “In the study, it was shown that there was a decrease in crude death rates in Northern Cyprus between 2007 and 2016. It has also been shown that there are differences in the death rates between the aforementioned years in the death rates of different genders and different age groups: For example, death rates have been shown to be higher for men than women in all years (in 2007, the death rate for men was 1.8 times higher than for women). In addition, it has been shown that mortality rates are higher in older population groups than young people. When the causes of death are examined, ischemic heart diseases (diseases related to obstructions in the vessels feeding the heart, such as heart attack) were shown as the most common cause of death in all years except 2008. Senility was shown as the most common cause of death in 2008. The study also reported that stroke (cerebrovascular diseases) with the second highest number of deaths worldwide is not seen as an important cause of death in Northern Cyprus. It has been shown that senility was recorded as a high rate of death in all years studied. However, worldwide causes of death are reported using the international disease classification system (ICD) and it is argued that reporting old age as a cause of death is scientifically incorrect ”.

Causes of deaths should be recorded accurately and completely

As a result of the findings of the study, Özdal stated that it is important to record the causes of deaths in Northern Cyprus correctly using the current international disease classification system recommended by the World Health Organization and that it is very important to identify diseases that cause deaths in the society by regularly evaluating the records in terms of developing disease prevention strategies. stressed.

Stating that as a result of the current Covid-19 pandemic, it will be possible to see differences in the causes of death for months and in the future, Özdal stated that therefore, the causes of deaths should be recorded accurately and completely. Özdal also added that the evaluation of the causes of death in the coming months and years will be of great importance in terms of targeted regulation and development of public health interventions that will play a role in preventing deaths.