Elderly victims dying of unnatural causes: a retrospective descriptive study from Ragama, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Even though life expectancy among the elderly has been improving health hazards due to unnatural causes are a significant medical and social issue among this group. The objective was to determine the causes and epidemiological aspects of unnatural deaths in the elderly. A retrospective descriptive study conducted for a period of 3 years, at a tertiary care hospital of Sri Lanka where information was collected from hospital records and post mortem reports of persons above 60 years of age, who died due to unnatural causes revealed that a majority of deaths were due to road traffic accidents of pedestrians.