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Potential years of life lost: what is the denominator?
1Department of Public Health Medicine, Powys Health, The Laurels, Bronllys, Brecon.
Objective:
To suggest an appropriate denominator for use with the statistic "potential years of life lost", in order to facilitate valid comparisons between health authorities.
Design:
Analysis of OPCS population and mortality data for the period 1987-91.
Setting:
Data for Wales were analysed to provide comparisons between the nine district health authorities.
Subjects:
There were 46,139 males and 30,258 females--that is, all deaths of Welsh residents, aged under 75 years, during the period 1987-91.
Main Results:
The use of age sensitive denominators with the potential years of life lost statistic alters the rank position of Welsh district health authorities.
Conclusion:
It is suggested that potential years of life lost should be expressed as a rate per 100,000 potential years of life in public health common data sets, and elsewhere, to facilitate valid comparisons between health authorities.