The number of homicides in South Africa has declined since the late 1990s, a study by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) shows.
However, it says homicide rates remain very high, especially for males in the 35-39 year age group. Homicide comprises the majority of unnatural deaths for males in this age group and male homicide rates are about six times higher than female homicide rates, the study found.
According to the Adult Mortality Report, which analyses data for people aged between 15 and 64, mortality rates from unnatural causes changed little between 1997/2004, although they declined at age 15-19 and at older ages.
“Deaths from unnatural causes are due to homicide, suicide or accidents. Unnatural cause deaths are sometimes called external cause deaths, violent deaths or injury deaths.”
Between 1997 and 2004 there was virtually no change in overall cancer death rates for either sex. For each sex, the death rate from cancer, stroke and other circulatory causes combined rose by 12% between 1997 and 2004, the report says.
Overall malaria death rates, however, rose between 1997/1999 and declined between 1999/2004. Death rates from diabetes and obesity rose between 1997 and 2004. Female death rates were always higher than male death rates, but the gap between the sexes narrowed over time, the report points out.
“Death rates rose between 1997 and 2004 for every five year age group for each sex, except for males age 15-19. Some of the increases in death rates were very large. The death rates more than tripled for females age 20-39 and more than doubled for males age 30-44.
“For the young and the old, increases in death rates were smaller. For each sex, for those age 15-19 and 55-64, death rates between 1997 and 2004 increased by 20% or less,” Stats SA said.
According to the report, HIV death rates have a distinctive pattern by age in which there is an increase to a given age and then a rapid decline at older ages. This peak occurs at 30-34 years for females and at 35-39 years for males.
“It is clear that many HIV deaths are registered as being due to some other cause of death. Based on the age pattern of death rates by sex, it is likely that a high proportion of deaths registered as due to parasitic diseases as a whole, parasitic opportunistic infections, certain disorders of the immune mechanism and maternal conditions are actually caused by HIV.
“Some registered causes of death rise to a peak with age but then decline at older ages more slowly than HIV, especially for males. For these registered causes of death, some of the deaths are likely actually due to HIV, but some of the deaths are likely due to something other than HIV. These causes of death include all infectious diseases, tuberculosis, malaria and nutritional deficiencies,” the reports states. – I-Net Bridge