title: Years of Life Lost and Childhood and Adolescent Cancer Mortality in Yazd Province, Iran (2004-2009).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Years of Life Lost (YLL) due to cancer can be a more illustrative index to promote preventive and therapeutic services, this study aimed to investigate the childhood cancer mortality and its trend over the past few years in Yazd to provide planners with baseline data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data obtained from death registration system of the healthcare center were used to calculate the age-specific standardized mortality for 5-year age groups. To calculate the YLL, the standardized expected YLL method was used with a discount rate of 0.03 for health gain in the future, the age weight of 0.04 for different years of age, and a constant age weight correction factor of 0.165. The collected data were analyzed using the Epi 6 and Excel 2007.
  
  
  RESULTS
  28 patients in Yazd aged 0-19 die annually due Leukemia and CNS tumors were the most common causes of death. The crude cancer death rate is 8.48 in boys and 6.72 in girls per 100000. Premature cancer deaths have caused 3,436 YLL in boys and 2,561 YLL in girls (4.92% of total YLL in both sex) .The average death age did not have a significant relationship with sex or location of residence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Childhood cancer mortality has had a decreasing trend. This study can help in the assessment of healthcare needs and improvement of the quality of healthcare services. It can also help in the design and prioritization of interventions to identify cancer risk factors which can facilitate early diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal medicine, School of Medicine- Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mirzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of community medicine, School of Medicine-Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mirzaei
authors.affiliation: Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mirzaei
authors.affiliation: Health Center of Yazd province- Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: ShogaeiFar
keywords: Cancer; Childhood; Iran; Mortality; Years of Life Lost