Information about women's mortality during the childbearing years has become of increasing interest in the health area in view of women's health programs. On this basis, the mortality of women aged between 15 and 49 years of the municipality of Ribeirão Preto, S. Paulo, Brazil, was studied for the period from 1985 to 1989 and compared to that of the period from 1970 to 1974. Mortality data were obtained from the civil Registry Offices of the municipality and population data were estimated on the basis of the last 2 censuses. Mortality was analyzed according to origin, marital status, seven 5-year age groups, and causes according to CID, 9th Revision, 1975. A total of 1,471 deaths occurred during the period under study, 705 of them being of town residents. The 4 major causes of residents' deaths in decreasing order of importance after calculation of proportional mortality rates, were: Chapters VII, II, XVII and I. Chapters III and V, which were very infrequent during the period from 1970 to 1974, had tended to increase owing to AIDS and chronic alcoholism, respectively. The 4 major causes continued to be the same as those of 1970, thought in a different order. The mean quinquennial death coefficients according to causes and age groups showed a gradual increase with age, more marked from 35 years on for Chapters VII, I and II. Chapter XVII showed a lower amplitude of variation from younger to older women in the periods studied. When the data were compared for a 15 - year period, the general trend was a decrease in coefficient values, especially in Chapter I. It is concluded that the indicators studied show a tendency towards a decline in infectious and parasitic diseases and a concomitant increase in chronic-degenerative disease, i.e., the occurrence of and epidemiological transition linked to the contradictions inherent in the present state of development in Brazil.
Mortality; Fertility; Cause of death