Introduction: Adolescents are the healthiest age group of the population but many studies show that period of adolescence is marked by significant morbidity and mortality. Health indicators of adolescent population have been getting worse during past decades. The aim of this study was to determine mortality rate of adolescents in the Republic of Serbia to determine most common causes of death in adolescence and to explore regional differences in adolescent mortality.
Materials and methods: Documentation tables of vital statistics in the Republic of Serbia in 2004, and Documentation Tables of Census 2002 were used. The causes of mortality were classified according to ICD 10.
Results and discussion: Specific morality rate in the Republic of Serbia is 32.08 on 100,000 adolescents. The leading causes of death in adolescence are injuries, malignancies and non specified causes, and there are significant regional differences, as well as gender and age differences. The mortality rate of male adolescents is about 2.4 times higher than the mortality rates in female adolescents. The mortality rate of older adolescents is significantly higher than mortality rate of younger adolescents. The mortality of adolescents is higher in Vojvodina than in Central Serbia. Precise data of external causes of death do not exist in vital statistics in our country.
Conclusion: The mortality of adolescents is high, especially for older male adolescents (15 to 19 years of age) and majority of deaths among adolescents could be prevented. It is necessary to improve data of vital statistics to get better insight into causes of adolescent death.