Comparison of Mortality by Gender and Regions in Tanzania using Direct Standardized Death Rates (DSDR) Method

Background: Comparison of mortality is very useful in assessing population health. Crude rates can easily be computed from the mortality but they are not good for comparison across groups of the population. The aim of this paper was to compare mortality in Tanzania by region and gender using the 2012 Tanzania Population and Housing Census. Methods: Age-specific death rates for regions, Tanzania Mainland, Tanzania Zanzibar and entire Tanzania were obtained from Mortality and Health monograph data downloadable from the National Bureau of Statistics website. The direct standardization method was used to compare the mortality for male and female populations across all regions of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar. Results: Findings show that the mortality is low in Arusha, Manyara, and Kilimanjaro compared to other regions in Tanzania mainland implying that health status for both male and female population in those regions is better than the other regions while it is the worst in Njombe, Iringa, and Kagera implying the poor health status for those regions as compared to the rest regions in Tanzania Mainland. In Tanzania Zanzibar, high mortality was observed in Kusini Unguja and the lowest in Kaskazini Unguja for both male and female populations. By national wise and for almost all regions, the mortality for the male population is higher than that for the female population. Conclusion: Direct standardization methods can save as the best way for comparing mortality because it takes into consideration both the population at risk and the age structure. However, in estimating mortality, crude death rates should be used to give the magnitude while direct standardized death rates should be used for comparison purposes.