[Mortality due to intimate partner violence in foreign women living in Spain (1999-2006)].

Objectives: To describe the distribution of mortality due to intimate partner violence (IPV) in foreign women living in Spain and to explore the potentially greater risk of dying from IPV in this group.

Methods: We performed a retrospective ecological study of deaths from IPV registered by the Women's Institute of Spain (1999-2006). Mortality rates and Poisson models for relative risk and 95% confidence intervals were calculated.

Results: The average risk of dying from IPV in foreign women was 5.3 times greater than that in Spanish women. In the years studied, the increased risk in foreign women was 2 to 8 times greater than that in Spanish women.

Conclusion: Foreign women living in Spain are especially vulnerable to death from IPV. Further research on the causes of this phenomena and strategies involving health services are needed.