Padubidri Jagadish Rao, Menezes Ritesh G, Pant Sadip, Shetty Soumya B
Department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (A Constituent College of Manipal University), Mangalore, India.
J Forensic Leg Med. 2013 Aug;20(6):651-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2013.03.029. Epub 2013 Apr 24.
Unnatural deaths in women of reproductive age (range 12-49 years) have a serious psychological and social impact on the family and community. Deaths among women of reproductive age reported as medico-legal cases were investigated to see the trend in terms of cause and manner of death. The study group consisted of a series of 328 consecutive forensic autopsies on women in the reproductive age group, performed between 2009 and 2011 at the Government Wenlock District Hospital, Mangalore, India by qualified specialist forensic medicine experts. Unnatural deaths formed 93.6% of the cohort. The top three causes of death included burns, poisoning and hanging forming 69.5% of the cases. The manner of death was suicide in 45.4% cases, accident in 43.6% cases and homicide in 4.6% cases. The circumstances of death were related to alleged medical negligence in 2.4% cases. Death in 4% cases was natural mannered with a disease being the cause of death. Three-fourths of the victims were married. Married women formed 63.1% of the suicidal victims. Homicidal deaths were not reported among unmarried women. The preponderant method of suicide was by poisoning at 42.3% (63 cases), followed by hanging (34.9%), burns (11.4%) and drowning (9.4%). These four methods comprised 98% of the total suicidal deaths in this study cohort. Accidental deaths were predominantly caused by burns (62.2%) and road traffic accident (23.1%). Two-thirds of the homicidal deaths were due to assault caused by blunt-force trauma, ligature strangulation and sharp-force trauma. One-third of the homicidal victims died due to burns. With a clear understanding of the cause and manner of death, it may be possible to predict, and hopefully prevent, future cases of unnatural deaths in women of reproductive age who form a very important group of society.
育龄期（12至49岁）女性的非自然死亡对家庭和社区有着严重的心理和社会影响。对报告为法医学案件的育龄期女性死亡情况进行了调查，以了解死亡原因和方式的趋势。研究组包括2009年至2011年期间在印度芒格洛尔的政府温洛克区医院由合格的法医专家对育龄期女性进行的一系列328例连续法医尸检。非自然死亡占该队列的93.6%。死亡的三大原因包括烧伤、中毒和上吊，占病例的69.5%。死亡方式为自杀的占45.4%，意外事故占43.6%，他杀占4.6%。2.4%的病例死亡情况与所称的医疗过失有关。4%的病例死亡方式为自然死亡，疾病为死亡原因。四分之三的受害者已婚。已婚女性占自杀受害者的63.1%。未婚女性中未报告他杀死亡情况。自杀的主要方式是中毒，占42.3%（63例），其次是上吊（34.9%）、烧伤（11.4%）和溺水（9.4%）。这四种方式占本研究队列自杀死亡总数的98%。意外死亡主要由烧伤（62.2%）和道路交通事故（23.1%）引起。三分之二的他杀死亡是由钝器伤、勒颈和锐器伤所致的袭击造成的。三分之一的他杀受害者死于烧伤。清楚了解死亡原因和方式后，或许有可能预测并有望预防育龄期女性未来的非自然死亡病例，她们是社会中非常重要的群体。
