Years of life lost

The following figure compares the proportion of years of life lost attributable to leading causes of premature death in 2010 with the deaths from the same causes.

disability graph

Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2013).

interaction Classify the 12 diseases shown in the figure according to whether they are primarily diseases of the young (children or young adults) or of middle-aged and older adults.

  The young The older Neither   The young The older Neither
Ischaemic
heart disease
 
 
 
 Diarrhoeal diseases
 
 
 
Cerebrovascular
disease
 
 
 
 Road traffic injuries
 
 
 
COPD
 
 
 
 Diabetes mellitus
 
 
 
Lower 
respiratory
infections
 
 
 
 TB
 
 
 
Lung cancer
 
 
 
 Malaria
 
 
 
HIV/AIDS
 
 
 
 Cirrhosis
 
 
 

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If you look at the figure again you will see that the causes of death that primarily affect children and young adults, for example diarrhoeal disease and AIDS, account for a larger proportion of YLL than of deaths. On the other hand, causes of death which are more important among older adults, such as heart attacks and strokes, account for a smaller proportion of YLL than of deaths. The two diseases that are important causes of death at every age, tuberculosis and cirrhosis (which at younger ages is often a sequela of hepatitis B infection), are found to be of about the same importance no matter whether this is gauged in terms of deaths or YLL.