Which term is used to measure the burden of disease or injury by counting years of life lost before a set age?

• A. Quality of life index
• B. Life expectancy
• C. YPLL
• D. Disability-adjusted life years

Answer: (C)

The idea here is to quantify how much potential life is lost when deaths occur before a certain age, focusing on premature mortality. The term for this is Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL). For each death before the cutoff age, you calculate the gap between the threshold age and the age at death, and then add those gaps up. Younger deaths contribute more to the total, which makes this measure especially useful for identifying preventable premature mortality in a population. In contrast, a quality of life index looks at health quality rather than years lost; life expectancy is an average remaining lifespan rather than a sum of lost years; disability-adjusted life years combine premature death with years lived with disability, but the question specifically refers to counting years lost before a set age, i.e., YPLL.