Inequality among men in standardised years of potential life lost from external causes, 1971-1991

By Dr David Blane, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK

External cause mortality affects disproportionately those at younger ages and, when age at death is taken into account, external causes are of comparable importance to heart disease and cancer.

The present paper uses Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL), a measure of mortality which includes age at death, to examine trends in external cause mortality, by social class, in England and Wales.

Deaths from external causes have fallen most in the more advantaged social classes, producing wider inequalities. Different categories of external cause have changed in opposite directions; traffic accidents have fallen but suicides have increased.

Suicide and traffic accidents remain prime policy targets. A new initiative on traffic accidents is proposed.