CAUSES OF DEATH AMONG CHILEAN WOMEN

We analyzed all death certificates issued during 1991 to investigate t he principal diseases causing death among Chilean women. We calculated direct relative risks and their confidence intervals, highlighting th ose diseases causing a significantly higher number of deaths among wom en. The main causes of death, shared by men and women, were acute myoc ardial infarction, cerebrovascular diseases and bronchopneumonia. The diseases that caused more deaths among women were fractures of head of femur, gallbladder cancer, mitral value disease, kidney infections an d cholelithiasis.