Priority Indicator #17: Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) Due to Premature Mortality

Contents: Background Information | Data Tables | Data Charts | Commentary | Download Data

Background Information

What Does This Indicator Mean?
YPLL is a proxy measure for the loss of productivity in a community as a result of premature mortality.  It can also be indicative of various population or community health concerns.

YPLL measures the number of years between the age at death and a set standard.  For this indicator, the age standard is 65 years.  For each geographic region, the YPLL are summed to get a total YPLL figure.  This indicator is calculated as the total YPLL divided by the total population under age 65, multiplied by 1,000.

Other Risk Factors or Indicators to Consider
The YPLL indicator is strongly correlated with a wide variety of other behavioral, health, socio-economic and community factors.  These include such things as alcohol and drug use, disease prevalence, accident rates, tobacco use, immunization rates, crime rates and poverty rates.

Limitations of the Data
This indicator is based on a complete count of deaths reported in the state on state mandated death certificates.  This is considered to be a highly reliable and accurate measurement of the indicator.

To the extent that the underlying age of a given region differs from a comparison region, this measure masks the underlying demographics and may be misinterpreted.  That is to say, for example, that a higher YPLL in Benton County -one of the youngest counties in the state-than in Deschutes County-a region of migration for many retirement age individuals-may incorrectly lead to the interpretation that there is an underlying community or population health problem in Benton County when in fact the comparison is merely reflecting the base demographics of the two counties.

Data Sources

• Center for Health Statistics, Oregon Health Division, Oregon Department of Human Services

• County and state population data are from the Population Research Center, Portland State University

The table below shows numbers and rates of years of potential life lost. It contains total rates per 1,000 people under age 65 in Marion and Polk Counties and statewide.

The chart below shows the rate of YPLL for Marion and Polk Counties and statewide for the years 1991-1999.   

Commentary 

The rate of YPLL for Polk County was consistently below the rate for both Marion County and the state as a whole.  Since 1994, Marion County's rate of YPLL has been higher than the statewide rate.

The sum total YPLL at the state level increased every year between 1991 and 1999 except 1996 and 1999.  Marion County has experienced an overall increase in total number of YPLL between 1991 and 1999, from 8,946 years in 1991 to 12,580 years in 1999.  Yet Marion County did see a decline in YPLL in 1993, 1996, and 1999.   Polk County's number and rate of YPLL have both fluctuated without an apparent trend during the past decade.

Data for this measure are collected at the address level, but because of concerns about reliability and confidentiality, this indicator is not calculated at the sub-county level.  With appropriate confidentiality protections and reporting, the Oregon Health Division could provide these data to the CHIP team at the zip code level.

Certain causes of death cause a greater change in YPLL than others. Malignant neoplasms (cancers), for example, tend to affect the old more than the young.  In contrast, accidental death is the most significant threat to the young, especially those very young persons, and thus accidental death is a significant contributor to YPLL.  In 1996, YPLL in Oregon and Marion and Polk Counties was affected most by these three causes of death:  unintentional injuries, cancer, and heart disease.   

Download the Data

Download Data in Microsoft Excel 

Download Data as a Tab Delimited Text File (Windows users: right click on this link, save file, and then open in your favorite spreadsheet; Mac users: click the link and hold for a second or two, then save the file and open it in a spreadsheet)

Back to the top