OBJECTIVES: to determine the frequency of death among women of child-bearing age, according to the main groups of basic causes of death; to calculate the Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) for homicide, comparing this index to the other most frequent causes of death; and to determine the YPLL coefficient for all four causes of death. METHODS: a descriptive, cross-sectional cohort study was carried out using the death certificates of women aged between 10 and 49 years in the city of Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, in 2001 and 2002. The basic cause of death was classified according to the ICD-10; the YPLL was analyzed according to the criteria of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, as well as the Romeder-McWhinnie method, using the Epi-Info 2000 software package. RESULTS: neoplasm was the most frequent cause of death (25.7%), followed by diseases of the circulatory system (21.2%), external causes (17.6) and infectious/ parasitic diseases (9.6%). Homicides were responsible for 49 % (4380) of the total number of YPLL, with a YPLL coefficient of 8.82. The coefficient for breast cancer was 4.14 and for acute myocardial infarction 3.77. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of women losing potential years of life due to homicide was 2.1 times greater than the figure for breast cancer and 2.3 times greater than that for acute myocardial infarction.
Potential years of life lost; Homicide; Mortality; Epidemiology; Violence against women
