Change in YPLL Rate for Top 10 Causes of Death by Race/Ethnicity (from 2010 - 2012 to 2019 - 2021)

Finger Lakes Region

This chart shows the change in premature mortality rate for different causes of death by race/ethnicity. The starting point for each arrow is the years of potential life lost (YPLL) rate in 2010-2012 and the end is 2019-2021. The red arrows pointing right represent increases in the YPLL rate, and the purple arrows pointing to the left represent decreases. For example, the YPLL rate due to drug overdoses for Black Non-Latinos increased greatly to a rate of 1,615 in 2019-2021. This was the largest increase for any cause and population on the chart.
Overall, the chart shows that Black Non-Latino residents of the Finger Lakes are more likely to die prematurely from most causes of death. While all 3 shown racial/ethnic groups had a significant increase in YPLL rate from drug overdoses, Black Non-Latino residents had the biggest increase, going from the lowest YPLL rate to the highest. For heart disease and homicide, Black Non-Latino residents already had the highest rates by a significant margin, and those rates and the disparities increased further. Suicide is the one cause of death that does not follow this trend. White Non-Latino residents had the greatest change while already having the highest YPLL from 2010-2012.

Methodology note: Years of potential life lost (YPLL) is a widely used measure to assess the rate of premature mortality. YPLL places a larger weight on the deaths of younger people, in contrast with overall mortality statistics which are dominated by deaths of the elderly. The YPLL rates in Common Ground Health analyses are derived using 75 years as the baseline. A death at age 65 has YPLL of 10, where as a death at age 35 has a YPLL of 40. The rates are calculated per 100,000 population and are age-sex adjusted to account for differences in population distribution.

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