AFRICAN VITAL STATISTICS - A BLACK-HOLE

Abstract

An attempt was made to describe the disease patterns among blacks on the basis of registered deaths, which have been collected for the whole of the RSA [South Africa] since 1978. The pattern of cause-specific proportional mortality resembled that of an underdeveloped population. It was noticed that the data were not suitable for detailed descriptions because there was evidence of under-registration and misclassification, in particular in the national states. A large proportion (20% on average) of the deaths are classified as caused by symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions. It is recommended that the process of registration be reviewed in order to improve the quality of the data so necessary for epidemiological and health care research.