Notes on the data: Potential years of life lost, by selected cause

Potential years of life lost from deaths of persons aged 0 to 74 years, by selected cause, 2017 to 2021

Policy context: As noted for the indicator of premature mortality, some 34% of deaths over the years 2017 to 2021 occurred before 75 years of age, although the proportion varies by sex and by cause, as shown here.

However, depending on the age at which a person dies, the number of years of life lost had they lived until, say, 74 years of age will vary. Potential years of life lost (PYLL) is a measure of the sum of the potential years of life lost from deaths at 15 years (59 years), 45 years (29 years) and so on, assuming they had all lived to 74 years of age.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare note that, on this measure, a particular PYLL value will be higher if mortality among children or young people is high; chronic diseases causing death among older people, on the other hand, have little effect on these values [1].

Some notable variations between causes shown by the data for the five years 2017 to 2021 [2,3] are:

looking at individual causes of death, suicide accounts for the largest number of PYLL, at 4.2 PYLLs per 1,000 population (and up from 3.4 over the years 2016 to 2020), and almost one in every nine PYLL (10.9 per cent of all PYLL);
at the chapter level, the highest rates were recorded for cancer (with total cancers accounting for 11.7 PYLL per 1,000 population), with the range between the States and Territories from 10.0 PYLL per 1,000 population in the Australian Capital Territory, to 15.0 PYLL per 1,000 population in the Northern Territory;
the second highest rates at the chapter level were from external causes (9.4 PYLL per 1,000 population), ranging from 8.3 in the Australian Capital Territory to 19.6 in the Northern Territory;
the rate of PYLL for people who lived in the most disadvantaged areas was over twice (2.14) that in the least disadvantaged areas across Australia for all causes of premature death and over five times for diabetes (5.29 times); with the next highest rates recorded for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (4.82 times) and 3.79 for road traffic injuries;and
for those living in the Very Remote areas, PYLL rates were 2.58 times those in the Major Cities areas for all causes of premature death and 8.08 times for diabetes and 7.52 times for road traffic injuries.

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Deaths in Australia. Available from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/web/152/deaths/deaths-in-australia/contents/age-at-death; last accessed 3 February 2020.
PHIDU (www.phidu.torrens.edu.au), based on Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System; 2017 to 2021.
PHIDU (www.phidu.torrens.edu.au), based on Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System; 2016 to 2020.

Details of data presented:

Note: Bracketed numbers below refer to codes in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-AM) chapters.

Potential years of life lost from cancer (C00-D48)
- Potential years of life lost from colorectal cancer (C18-C20, C26.0)
- Potential years of life lost from lung cancer (C33, C34)
- Potential years of life lost from breast cancer (C50)
Potential years of life lost from diabetes (E10 to E14)
Potential years of life lost from circulatory system diseases (I00-I99)
- Potential years of life lost from ischaemic heart disease (I20-I25)
- Potential years of life lost from cerebrovascular disease (I60-I69)
Potential years of life lost from respiratory system diseases (J00-J99)
- Potential years of life lost from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (J40-J44)
Potential years of life lost from external causes (V01-Y98)
- Potential years of life lost from road traffic injuries (V00-V06.[1], V09.2, V09.3, V10-V18.[4,5,9], V19.[4,5,6,9], V20-V28.[4,5,9], V29.[ 4,5,6,9], V30-V38. [5,6,7,9], V39.[4,5,6,9], V40-V48[5,6,7,9], V49[4,5,6,9], V50-V48.[5,6,7,9], V59.[4,5,6,9], V60-V68.[5,6,7,9], V69.[4,5,6,9], V70-V78.[5,6,7,9], V79.[4,5,6,9], V81.1, V82.1, V82.9, V83-V86.[0,1,2,3], V87, V89.2, V89.3)
- Potential years of life lost from suicide and self-inflicted injuries (X60-X84, Y87.0)

Notes: For detailed data files released since 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has applied a staged approach to the coding of cause of death which affects the number of records available for release at any date. In general, the latest year’s data are preliminary, the second latest are revised and the data for the earlier years are final. In this way, the majority of records are released earlier than would be the case than were no data released until files had been returned from Coroners’ offices. For further information about the ABS revisions process see the following and related sites: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3303.0Explanatory+Notes12012.

Data published here are from the following releases: 2017, final; 2018, revised; and 2019, 2020,and 2021 preliminary.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: The sum of the number of years between the actual age at death and 75 years of age for deaths by selected cause of persons aged 0 to 74 years over the years 2017 to 2021

Denominator: Persons aged 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate of potential years of life lost per 1,000 population (aged 0 to 74 years); and/or indirectly age-standardised ratio, based on the Australian standard.

Source: Data compiled by PHIDU from deaths data based on the 2017 to 2021 Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System. The population is the average of the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP) for Australia, 30 June 2017 to 30 June 2021.