Premature mortality, measured in terms of potential years of life lost (PYLL), is an alternative measure that attributes health outcome to the health system. PYLL is a summary measure of premature mortality providing an explicit way of weighting deaths occurring before the age of 70, which are, a priori, preventable. In Greece, premature mortality was reduced by 43.2% during the period 1980–2007 (from 5810 to 3299 PYLL per 100 000 population). A major factor contributing to this decrease has been the downward trend in infant mortality (see also Table1.8). In addition, the probability of dying before the age of 5 years has been substantially reduced. These data reflect the fact that the establishment of the ESY …show more content…
Since the beginning of the 1990s, diseases of the circulatory system have been the leading causes of death. In 2008, 43.5% of total deaths in Greece were due to cardiovascular diseases. Among the OECD countries, Greece has the fifth highest standardized mortality ratio for diseases of the circulatory system after Slovakia (485.4), Hungary (476.2), Czech Republic (396.4) and Poland (363.0) (OECD 2009). The second major cause of death is cancer. Malignant neoplasms account for 26.4% of mortality. On the other hand, tuberculosis cases have dropped significantly and have stabilized at a low level. Deaths from accidents have also been decreasing steadily although they remain the primary source of premature