In Switzerland, the number of years of life lost due to a non-communicable disease (NCD) per 100 000 population has decreased since 1995. In 1995, 3944 years overall were lost to NCD, whereas in 2023 this number was 1862. In 2023, the burden of years lost to NCD to men (2226) was considerably greater than those lost to women (1502 years).
A considerable decline can also be seen when the years of life lost are broken down by disease: For example, the years of life lost due to cardio-vascular disease have fallen from 1060 (1995) to 331 (2023) per 100 000 population and for cancer, figures have fallen from 1698 to 846 years over the same time period.
This indicator is part of the Monitoring System Addiction and NCD (MonAM) of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).
A person’s years of potential life lost due to NCD show how much longer this person would have lived had they not died before the end of their 75th year due to a non-communicable disease (NCD):
Early deaths are calculated on the basis of deaths within the population. With a selected age threshold of 75, a death at the age of 10 means 65 years of potential life lost, death at the age of 65 means 10 years of potential life lost.
A major objective of the NCD strategy is to fight frequently occurring and chronic diseases such as cardio-vascular disease, cancer, diabetes, respiratory disease and musculoskeletal disease. It aims to reduce the burden of disease in the population and prevent early death. The number of years of life lost provide direct and quantifiable information on the trend in this number.
Definition
This indicator is based on the Cause of Death Statistics of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Figures are updated annually.
«Years of potential life lost (YPLL)» is an internationally recognised indicator. The indicator shows the number of years of potential life lost per 100 000 population (permanent resident population) for deaths occurring between birth and the age of 75. To calculate the YPLL, the number of years that would have remained up to the age limit of 75 are counted for each death and then added together. The standardised rate was calculated using the direct method with the European standard population 2010 and is described here: Standardisation - explanation and calculation.
The following diseases have been determined according to the corresponding ICD-10 definitions:
- Diseases of the circulatory system (I00- I99)
- All cancers (C00-C97)
- Diabetes mellitus (E10-E14; excl. E10.2, E11.2, E12.2, E13.2, E14.2)
- Diseases of the respiratory system (J30-J98)
- Diseases of the liver (K70 and K74)
For better international comparability, this breakdown is adapted to that used in the Global Burden of Disease study (WHO, 2020).
With the update of the indicator in 2024, the calculation of the rates was adjusted: instead of using the population size as of 31 December of a given year, the average of the population figures from 31 December of the current and previous year is now used. This method provides a more accurate estimate of the population size as distributed over the year. Consequently, the results of this version of the indicator may differ slightly from previous versions.
Source
- Federal Statistical Office (FSO): Cause of death statistics
References
- Avoidable mortality: OECD/Eurostat lists of preventable and treatable causes of death (2022). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Commission: Publication.
- Revision of the European Standard Population — Report of Eurostat's task force (2013). European Commission. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, p. 121: Report.
- WHO methods and data souces for country-level causes of death 2000-2019 (2020). Global Health Estimates Technical Paper WHO/DDI/DNA/GHE/2020.2: Publication.
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