Mekonnen, Wubegzeir (PhD)Nigussie, Haymanot2018-09-032023-11-052018-09-032023-11-052015-08http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/11840Background: Adult mortality rate is the probability of dying between the ages of 15 and 60. Levels and trends in overall adult mortality have important implications for health and social program. Globally, adult mortality rate has been declining in the period of 1990 and 2012 though countries in sub-Saharan Africa showed increase in adult mortality. Despite this increase, adult mortality remains a neglected public health issue in Sub-Saharan Africa. A lack of empirical data about the levels of mortality experienced by adults in this region has fueled this neglect. Thus, analyzing data from continuous surveillance system can be a corner stone to the development of reliable data on trends and risk factors for adult mortality. Objective: To assess trends and identify determinants of adult mortality in Butajira, South Central Ethiopia Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted. The Butajira database running from 1987-2008 was extracted and analysed using STATA 12. The trend of adult mortality was computed using event history analysis and Poisson regression analysis was used to calculate IRR with 95% CI. For the qualitative part, data were collected from community leaders, staffs of health and agriculture offices and the BRHP to strengthen the result from quantitative part of the study. Open code 3.6 Software was used to code and categorize qualitative data and themathic analysis was employed. Result: There was a significant decline in adult mortality, with some ups and downs in levels during the survey years.This was due to ill behaviours, social upheavals, food insecurity, health service related problems and occurrence of epidemics at different times.The incidence of adult mortality was found to be 6.57(6.33, 6.82) adult deaths per 1000 person years. There were higher incidences of female adult mortality with a level of (95%CI) 7.14 (6.78, 7.52). The incidence of adult mortality significantly increased with age. Married, divorced and widowed adults had higher incidence of death with adjusted IRR (95% CI) 1.71(1.52, 1.91), 2.93(2.11, 4.06) and 4.90(4.25, 5.66) respectively compared to the singles. Adults who were illiterate, resided in rural areas, confessed in Muslim religion and did not have window for their houses had significantly higher incidence of death with IRR (95% CI) 1.12(1.02, 1.23), 1.27(1.02, 1.57), 1.15(1.05, 1.26) and 1.20(1.08, 1.34) respectively. Conclusion: The incidence of adult mortality showed a declining trend mainly due to social and behavioral problems. Age, residence, religion, marital status, availability of windows were significantly associated with incidence of adult mortality.Awareness creation with prevention of different diseases and ensuring food security are recommended to health and agricultural sectors respectively.Furthermore stakeholders are advised to work on decreasing the work burden of females and their empowermentenAssessment of Trends and DeterminantsThesis