Years of life lost due to bronchial asthma in Poland between 1999 and 2013.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze the years of life lost due to asthma in Poland between 1999 and 2013, with the use of the SEYLL measure (Standard Expected Years of Life Lost).

METHODS: The study was based on a dataset of 5,606,516 records gathered from death certificates of Polish residents from 1999 to 2013. The data on the deaths due to bronchial asthma and status asthmaticus (J45 and J46 according to ICD-10) were used for the analysis. The SEYLL, SEYLLp (SEYLL per person) and SEYLLd (SEYLL per death) were implemented to assess lost life years. The analysis of time trends was performed with the use of the join point model.

RESULTS: In 1999-2013, asthma and status asthmaticus were the cause of 11,380 deaths of Poles (0.20% of all deaths), resulting in 4.23 prematurely lost life years per 10,000 males and 3.22 years per 10,000 females. Over the analyzed years, the value of SEYLL decreased both for men and women. Every man who died due to bronchial asthma in Poland in the studied period, lost on average 19.12 years of life, and every woman 18.20 years.

CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of SEYLL indicated that premature mortality due to asthma is still a meaningful problem in the Polish population and a constant challenge for public health activities.