Which statement best describes Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL)?

• A. A measure of life expectancy at birth
• B. A method to assess healthcare costs
• C. A measure of the impact of disease or injury in a population that calculates years of life lost before a specific age (65 or 75)
• D. A measure of disability-adjusted life years

Answer: (C)

YPLL measures the burden of premature mortality by counting the years lost when someone dies before a chosen age threshold. For each death at age a below the cut-off A, you add A − a; if death occurs at or after A, it contributes nothing. This creates a population-level view of how much potential life is lost due to disease or injury, with emphasis on deaths occurring earlier than the selected age. The cut-off age (often 65 or 75) is a convention that helps compare different populations or causes and reflects societal expectations for remaining lifespan. This differs from life expectancy at birth, which summarizes expected lifespan for newborns, from healthcare costs, and from disability-adjusted life years, which blend years of life lost with years lived with disability. For example, with a cut-off of 75, a death at 60 would contribute 15 years to the total YPLL, while a death at 80 would contribute zero.