title: Potential gains in life expectancy from reducing heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, kidney disease or HIV/AIDS as major causes of death in the USA.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Potential gains in life expectancy (PGLEs) that give proper consideration to competing risks are an effective indicator for measuring the impact of multiple causes of death on a defined population. This study aimed to assess PGLE by hypothetically reducing the major causes of death in the USA from 2001 to 2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  PGLEs due to the reduction and elimination of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, kidney disease or human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) were calculated by age, gender and race.
  
  
  METHODS
  Age-specific mortality rates for the above diseases from the National Center for Health Statistics were used, and multiple decremental life tables were constructed to compute the corresponding PGLEs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PGLEs due to the elimination of heart disease, cancer or HIV/AIDS decreased from 2001 to 2008, but PGLEs due to the elimination of Alzheimer's disease or kidney disease increased over time. For heart disease, PGLE in 2001-2008 for all races was 2.78-2.15 for females vs 2.41-2.06 for males. For cancer, PGLE in 2001-2008 for all races was 2.97-2.81 for females vs 3.02-2.85 for males. HIV/AIDS has a greater impact on people of working age, whereas Alzheimer's disease has a greater impact on the elderly population. To compare the impacts of these diseases on life expectancy, partial multiple decremental life tables were constructed, and PGLEs were computed by a partial reduction or complete elimination of various causes of death for the entire life span as well as for certain working ages.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study outlined a picture of how each category of diseases could affect life expectancy in the US population by age, race or sex. The findings may assist in evaluating current public health improvements, and also provide useful information for directing future research and disease control programmes.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Burau
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D002423:Cause of Death / Q000639:trends; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000208:ethnology / Q000639:trends*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult