A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of community deaths in County St. Patrick Trinidad over a one-year period from January to December 2022

J Forensic Leg Med. 2025 Mar 27;112:102850. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2025.102850. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the trends in community deaths in County St. Patrick in South-West Trinidad for a period of one year from January 1, 2022-December 31, 2022.

METHODS: The community deaths were obtained from the County St. Patrick Community Mortality Registry and analysed for a period of one year from January to December 2022 to examine trends in demographic characteristics, manner of death and prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

RESULTS: There were 597 community deaths recorded for the period January to December 2022 in County St. Patrick Trinidad. The age and sex distribution of community deaths followed a similar distribution to national mortality data with more deaths occurring in males (59.1 %) and persons aged 60 years and older (77.2 %). Post-mortem examinations were requested in 30.5 % of community deaths which is comparable to previous regional post-mortem rates. The majority (91.5 %) of community deaths were classified by manner of death as natural. The proportion of unnatural deaths (8.5 %) was consistent with previous national mortality data. The trend of the prevalence of communicable diseases followed the national mortality trend of COVID-19 related deaths in Trinidad and Tobago, with the highest number of deaths occurring in January 2022 and decreased as the year progressed. There was an increased prevalence of non-communicable diseases particularly hypertension (44.4 %) and diabetes (32.5 %) in community deaths when compared to the national prevalence of 25.8 % and 11.7 % respectively.

CONCLUSION: The community deaths in County St. Patrick over a one-year period from January to December 2022 followed similar national and global trends such as age and gender. However, our results revealed the impact of the increasing homicide rate in Trinidad and Tobago, increased prevalence of NCDs specifically hypertension and diabetes, and decreasing trend in COVID-19 deaths. Recommendations include to improve the reporting of community deaths, strengthen end of life/palliative care services in the public health care system and improving the prevention and control of NCDs.

PMID:40267727 | DOI:10.1016/j.jflm.2025.102850