Change in YPLL Rate for Top 10 Causes of Death by Socioeconomic Status (SES) (from 2010 - 2012 to 2019 - 2021)

Finger Lakes Region

This chart shows the change in premature mortality rate for different causes of death by socioeconomic status (SES). 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 in areas with low SES increased greatly to a rate of 1,912 in 2019-2021. This was the largest increase for any cause and population on the chart.
Overall, the chart shows that premature mortality rates are significantly higher in areas of low SES for nearly every common cause of death. While all areas had a significant increase in YPLL rate from Drug Overdose, low SES areas had 2x and 3x the increase of medium and of high SES areas. For heart disease and homicide, low SES areas already had the highest rates by a significant margin, and then saw a massive increase in YPLL rate in contrast with minor increases in the medium SES areas and minor decreases in the low SES areas. Suicide is the one cause of death that does not follow this trend. The increase in YPLL rate due to suicide was similar in all SES areas. This is the only cause in which high SES areas do not have the lowest YPLL rate of all 3 groups.

Methodology note: The SES index ranking was developed by Common Ground Health and calculated using a variety of socioeconomic indicators from the American Community Survey including average income, poverty rates, education levels, housing value, and homeownership. Each ZIP code is assigned a socioeconomic (SES) index ranking from 1 to 5. The lower SES ZIP codes tend to have lower average income, higher poverty rates, lower prevalence of college degrees, etc.

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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