Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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TECHNICAL NOTE:

YEARS OF POTENTIAL LIFE LOST

1 YPLL measures the extent of 'premature' mortality, which is assumed to be any death at ages of 1–78 years inclusive, and aids in assessing the significance of specific diseases or trauma as a cause of premature death.

2 Estimates of YPLL were calculated for deaths of persons aged 1–78 years based on the assumption that deaths occurring at these ages are untimely. The inclusion of deaths under one year would bias the YPLL calculation because of the relatively high mortality rate for that age, and 79 years was the median age at death when this series of YPLL was calculated using 2001 as the standard year. As shown below, the calculation uses a standard population which is the 2001 census. This standard is revised every 10 years.

3 A number of variables are used in calculating YPLL.
YPLL is derived from:



where:
Ax= adjusted age at death. As age at death is only available in completed years the midpoint of the reported age is chosen (e.g. age at death 34 years was adjusted to 34.5).
Dx= registered number of deaths at age due to a particular cause of death.
YPLL is standardised for age using the following formula:



where the age correction factor Cx is defined for age as:




where:
= estimated number of persons resident in Australia aged 1–78 years at 30 June 2004
= estimated number of persons resident in Australia aged years at 30 June 2004
= estimated number of persons resident in Australia aged years at 30 June 2001 (standard population)
= estimated number of persons resident in Australia aged 1–78 years 30 June 2001 (standard population)