Socio-demographic profile of unatural deaths: An autopsy based study at SMS Medical College, Jaipur

Unnatural deaths are the deaths which are caused by any means other than a disease. The data available in literature regarding the socio-demographic profile of unnatural death in Jaipur region are lacking, hence present study was conducted to evaluate the socio-demographic profile of different types of cases and to assess the manner, and cause of their death. Study setting was the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, SMS Medical College, and attached Hospitals, Jaipur (A tertiary health care centre in North-Western India) over a period of one year from November, 2013 to October. 2014. A total of 3306 medico-legal autopsies were conducted at the mortuary, out of which 3172 autopsies (96%) were concluded to be unnatural deaths satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. 78.28% were male and 21.72% were female, Male-female ratio was 3.6: 1. More than half of were between second to fourth decade of age. Major cause for unnatural deaths was found to be Road traffic accident. Improvement in the literacy and employment to the youth may brought down the crime and thus reduce the incidence of preventable unnatural deaths in Indian demography.