Increase in years of life after eliminating causes of death: significance for health priorities.

The theory of competing risks of death has been applied in this study for the construction of two indices: (1) increase in the expectation of life as a function of age, and (2) increase in the average number of years to be lived by a newborn up to various ages, when selected causes of death are eliminated. The indices have been applied to the 1970 mortality in Finland. Vascular diseases comprise the most important cause of death in both sexes, when the first index is applied. According to the second index, considering ages up to 65 years, violent deaths emerge as the most important cause of death among men and neoplasms appear equally important as vascular diseases among women. The magnitude of a health problem was found to be dependent on the index selected, which should be considered in health planning.