Assessment of the completeness of births and deaths registration in an urban Nigerian community

Abstract

This paper assessed the completeness of births and deaths registration in Mokola, a semi-urban community in Oyo state, Nigeria. The cross-sectional study with a two-stage cluster sampling was designed to select 1361 men and women aged 15 to 65 years. Information on births and deaths registration was collected using a structured pretested interviewer administered questionnaire. Assessment of birth and death registration data was carried out using indirect demographic methods. The mean age of respondents was 31 years (SD ±8.8 years). Almost all mothers (91.1%) claimed they registered the index births and 36.5% of mothers were able to produce birth certificates. For deaths, completeness of registration in Mokola was very low with an estimate of completeness at 21% for the period 2000 to 2006. The study concluded that birth and death registrations were largely incomplete in the study area.