Abstract
Avoidable mortality, defined as deaths which should not have occurred when effective public health
and medical interventions were available, is a widely-used indicator for quality and effectiveness of the
healthcare system in developed countries. This study aimed to estimate the avoidable mortality from the
death registry in Thailand in 2009 and its trend from 2004 to 2009. We applied a list of avoidable causes of
mortality and age limits based on the Australian and New Zealand study. Vital registration data were
used to calculate age- and sex- specific death rates and standardized with the reference from the World
Health Organization World Population. The findings showed that avoidable mortality amounted to 36.7%
of total deaths in 2009. The rate for men was approximately double that for women throughout the period.
Age-standardized mortality rates for men and women decreased from 332.6, and 178.8 per 100,000 to
288.1, and 149.7 per 100,000 in 2004 and 2009, respectively. The top three causes in 2009 were invasive
bacterial and protozoan infectious diseases, followed by suicide, self-inflicted injuries and liver cancer.
There was a notable reduction in avoidable mortality in Thailand from 2004-2009. But since the estimation
relies on the cause-of-death information, effort to improve data quality is required.
