Mortalidade de Mulheres em Idade Fértil por Causas Externas: Análise de 2274 Necropsias do IML-BH

Female mortality presents important peculiarities in relation to the male, especially when studying the deaths due to external causes (DDEC). These are the third most important cause of death among women in Brazil. Considering the importance of DDEC for the criminal forensic sciences as well as the deficiency of national information involving necroscopic studies with these causes of death in women of reproductive age group (RAG), this research aimed to evaluate its epidemiological profile at the Forensic Medicine Institute of Belo Horizonte (FMI-BH). A descriptive and retrospective study was carried out in which the RAG women autopsied in the FMI-BH were evaluated in the period from 2006 to 2012. The 2,274 RAG autopsy reports in the period corresponded to 5.39% of the total necropsies and to 24.8 % of female autopsies performed in FMI-BH. This sample accounted for 67.8% of the total number of women victims of violent death necropsied in the same period. The mean age was 29.4 years, the majority had brown skin and 79.6% were single, widowed or legally separated. The most frequent circumstance of death was homicide (42%) and suicide the second (33%). Alcohol was found in 25.1% of the cases. In the positive cases for the toxicological examination, cocaine and marijuana were the most found substances. Together, these data better define the epidemiological profile of deaths due to external causes in women of childbearing age, contributing in the elaboration of intervention and prevention strategies.