Lung Cancer: Years of Potential Life Lost Rate by Race/Ethnicity

New York Finger Lakes Region

Over the past 15 years, premature mortality rates from lung cancer have declined significantly for the white and black populations, with the black YPLL rate remaining 31 percent higher than the white rate. The Latino rate in most recent years (2013-2015) is lower than the early 2000s, but their rate has jumped up and down a bit, always staying beneath the white rate.

 

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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