Premature mortality in the US: A convergence study

Konstantinos Christopoulos; Konstantinos Eleftheriou

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113141

Premature mortality in the US: A convergence study

Soc Sci Med. 2020 Aug:258:113141. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113141. Epub 2020 Jun 17.

Authors

Konstantinos Christopoulos¹, Konstantinos Eleftheriou²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Economics, University of Piraeus, 80 Karaoli & Dimitriou Street, Piraeus 185 34, Greece. Electronic address: kchrist@unipi.gr.
² Department of Economics, University of Piraeus, 80 Karaoli & Dimitriou Street, Piraeus 185 34, Greece. Electronic address: keleft@unipi.gr.

PMID: 32634731
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113141

Abstract

Premature mortality is an important public health indicator with ramifications to social and economic outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine whether premature mortality, measured by the years of potential life lost (YPLL), converges among the U.S. states and which mortality components lead to divergence. To this end, we calculate the YPLL and apply the Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009) convergence test methodology. We find that for males and blacks all U.S. states converge to a steady-state while for females, whites and total population, the states form convergence clubs. These clubs differ mainly due to variances in infant, cardiovascular and unintentional injury mortalities with the ones with the lesser YPLL located mainly on the west and east coast.

Keywords: Convergence analysis; Phillips & Sul; Premature mortality; USA; Years of potential life lost.

MeSH terms

Cause of Death
Female
Humans
Infant
Life Expectancy*
Male
Mortality
Mortality, Premature*
White People