Assessing Years of Life Lost Versus Number of Deaths in the United States, 1995–2015

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To assess years of life lost to each cause of death in the United States between 1995 and 2015, and compare it with the number of deaths. METHODS: We used Vital Statistics mortality data and defined "life-years lost" as remaining life expectancy for each decedent's age, sex, and race. We calculated the share of life-years lost to each cause of death in each year, and examined reasons for changes. RESULTS: In 2015, heart disease caused the most deaths, but cancer caused 23% more life-years lost. Life-years lost to heart disease declined 6% since 1995, whereas life-years lost to cancer increased 16%. The increase for cancer was entirely attributable to population growth and longer life expectancy; had these factors remained constant, life-years lost to heart disease and cancer would have fallen 56% and 38%, respectively. Accidents (including overdoses), suicides, and homicides each caused twice the share of life-years lost as deaths. Measuring life-years lost highlighted racial disparities in heart disease, homicides, and perinatal conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Life-years lost may provide additional context for understanding long-term mortality trends.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 32 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.