Özet:

Objective: Infant mortality rate is an important indicator of development levels. Reliable and well-functioning death registration systems provide both accurate calculations of mortality indicators, and timely implementations of health policies. Completeness of infant deaths in MERNIS varies across provinces in Turkey. The aim of this study was to examine whether there is a correlation between the development level of a province and the completeness of its infant death registration efforts. Method: In this descriptive study, Pearson correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the completeness level of infant mortality records and the human development index (HDI) of provinces. Following this, an HDI-completeness scatter plot was constructed and the 20 provinces which were the best-fit to the scatter plot were examined further. Results: Results showed that 76% of infant deaths were registered to MERNIS in 2014. It was found that there was significant but low correlation between HDI and completeness of infant mortality records. Provinces in the Middle East Anatolian and the South East Anatolian regions had low levels of HDI and completeness values in infant mortality records. Results also showed that there were intra-regional differences in HDI-completeness values. Eskişehir, Mersin and Kayseri had high HDI values in regions where they were located although having low levels of completeness values. Considering the first three metropolitan cities, Istanbul had a similar HDI (0.725) and completeness ratio (0.79) to the Turkish average. Ankara and İzmir were above the Turkish average and had the highest values in their regions at both indicators. Conclusion: Results showed that provinces that have high HDI also have high completeness percentages in MIR. This means that individuals who have high levels of education, income and health and institutions responsible for death records in these provinces were more attentive about the registration of child deaths.

Anahtar Kelimeler: