Top 10 Causes of Death
Finger Lakes Region Years 2019-2021
Cancer and Heart Disease are the leading causes of mortality in the Finger Lakes region based on number of deaths. COVID-19 was the 4th leading cause of death from 2019-2021 and was responsible for over 2500 excess deaths in the region. Drug overdose was the 8th leading cause of death by number of deaths, but it had the 2nd highest premature mortality rate as measured by years of potential life lost. This is because drug overdoses had a very young average age of death (44) compared to all of the other top 10 causes of death.
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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