Premature mortality in the US: A convergence study.

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.