Top Causes of Years of Potential Life Lost - Latino by Socioeconomic Status

Large disparities in the rates of premature mortality across the socioeconomic spectrum are also clearly seen within each of the racial/ethnic populations.

Among Latinos, the same clear pattern of disparity between the lower and higher socioeconomic populations prevails. The YPLL rates for heart disease and cancer are 226 percent and 94 percent higher respectively for the SES 1 vs SES 4/5 population. In addition, drug overdose, homicide and chronic liver disease are top causes of premature mortality for Latinos in SES 1, but not for other socioeconomic segments.

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.