Estimates of Potential Life Expectancy Gains from Eliminating Cause-Specific Premature Deaths in India: An Application of Cause-Deleted Life Table Method

With its large population, India is capable of determining global epidemiological patterns. Despite a few attempts to document the impact of cause-specific mortality on life expectancy in India, the country has been facing the problem of a lack of reliable and regular information on the leading causes of death (CoD). However, this information is essential for drafting changes in public healthcare policy, allocating healthcare finances, and distributing healthcare personnel. In this context, this chapter estimates the potential gains in life expectancy if the country could eliminate a particular cause-specific premature death. The result shows that eliminating noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and symptoms, signs, and ill-defined condition-related deaths would potentially increase life expectancy at birth in the country by 7.37 years and 6.70 years, respectively. At the age of 60 years, avoiding deaths from NCDs and symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions would potentially increase life expectancy by 4.23 years and 5.95 years, respectively, while avoiding all communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional deaths would only add 2.6 years at birth and 0.68 years at age 60. Further, eliminating deaths from injury would extend life expectancy by 1.35 years at birth and 0.39 years at age 60. Avoiding deaths caused by “NCDs” and “symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions” would substantially help to improve life expectancy at birth in India.