[Which are the causes death among Chilean women?]

We analyzed all death certificates issued during 1991 to investigate the principal diseases causing death among Chilean women. We calculated direct relative risks and their confidence intervals, highlighting those diseases causing a significantly higher number of deaths among women. The main causes of death, shared by men and women, were acute myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular diseases and bronchopneumonia. The diseases that caused more deaths among women were fractures of head of femur, gallbladder cancer, mitral valve disease, kidney infections and cholelithiasis.