Why is premature death (YPLL) the only measure of mortality? Did you consider adding all-cause or cause-specific mortality?

We use a single measure of premature death for its simplicity - we believe that the focus on premature death, giving greater weight to loss of early life in the early years, the preventability of many of these deaths is an important message.  Measures of cause-specific death are less reliable than overall death rates, particularly for smaller counties. However, as a follow up to the Rankings, we encourage more detailed assessments of the causes of premature death in a community.