ABSTRACT
To study the principal causes of death of the women dead at an age ranging between 15 and 49 years old and having been hospitalized in a public medical structures of the gouvernorat of Sfax. Retrospective study concerning all the included deaths between 1999 and 2007. The study was related to 728 deaths, which correspond to an average of 80.88 deaths FAR per year. Public highway accidents were the major cause of death [83 cases, 11.4% of the causes of death] followed by the burns [37 cases, 5%] and the cerebral vascular accidents [31 cases, 4.25%]. The classification of the causes of death according to groups of pathologies showed the prevalence of the cardio- vascular diseases [18.7%], the external causes of death [18.2%], cancers [11.6%] and the causes related to the pregnancy and the childbirth [8.5%]. The maternal death rate was of 56.91 per 100000. The cause of maternal death was directly related to the pregnancy in 67.74% of the cases. The immediate causes were prevailed by the hemorrhagic causes [27.5%]. The death was avoidable in 48.83% of the cases and the failures were related to the woman in 60% of the cases. The prevention of new practices of life [female nicotinism, obesity, bad food habits, lack of vigilance in traffic] and a better practice of the primary and secondary prevention in medicine could decrease the premature death rates in Tunisia