Background: To reduce traffic injuries in the country, health professionals should have accurateestimates of road traffic deaths. Multiple and sometimes inconsistent statistics presented byorganizations in charge create high degree of uncertainty for planners and decision makers.To achieve an accurate estimate, several methods are available. Of them, capture-recapturemethod seems to be an appropriate and affordable method regarding the reliability of the datasources. This study aimed to estimate the number of road traffic deaths in Kurdistan Provinceduring 2004-2009, using capture-recapture method and based on 2 sources of data obtainedfrom Death Registration System and Forensic Medicine Department.Materials and Methods: All deaths due to road traffic accidents in Kurdistan Province wereextracted during 2004-2009. These deaths were legally registered in Death Registration Systemand Forensic Medicine Department. Shared cases among these 2 sources were identified basedon full name, age, gender, and date of death and finally the accurate number of deaths wascalculated using the correct volume formula.Results: During study period, Forensic Medicine Department of the province had registeredabout 3289 cases of road traffic mortalities and Death Registration System had registered3771 cases of death resulting from road traffic accidents. Using capture-recapture method, thenumber of deaths in the same years was estimated as 5726 people (5818-5634:CI95%). Theproportion of mortality registered in the Death Registration System and Forensic MedicineDepartment of the province to the total estimated deaths were 65.8% and 57.4%, respectivelyand both systems together covered 85.4% of road traffic deaths, i.e. under-reporting of about832 people.Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that none of 2 sources of ForensicMedicine Department and Death Registration System, per se or both, fully covered road trafficmortalities and using capture-recapture method can help estimate the actual number of deaths.
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