Health Inequity Causes Premature Death
Finger Lakes Region, 2013-2018
Health inequities driven by poverty, racism and other factors lead to large disparities in the rates of premature mortality. Across the Finger Lakes region, health inequity steals more years of life than opioid overdoses, homicide, suicide and lung cancer combined. More years of life are lost to health inequity than all forms of cancer combined.
This data visualization is part of Overloaded: The Heavy Toll of Poverty on Our Region's Health Report.
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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