PERIOD LIFE TABLES FOR CALCULATING LIFE EXPECTANCY: OPTIONS TO ASSESS AND MINIMIZE THE POTENTIAL FOR BIAS/RESPOND

For cohort influences, a technique to tackle bias involves comparing standard period LE results with those in which mortality rates are stratified by age group and time elapsed since diagnosis (i.e., entry into the cohort).7 To assess the impact of mortality rates that vary with time since diagnosis, one ofthe authors of this letter has initiated a project using a cohort of HIV-positive adults created from a provincial linked health administrative database.8 We appreciate both the complexity of interpreting these health measures and their vital importance for providing timely public health information for action. [...]there are indeed many published methodological articles aiming to disentangle the forces that explain why the PLT-LE might differ from the cohort LE. [...]it is specifically because the PLT-LE metric is of "vital importance for providing timely public health information for action," as emphasized by Steensma et al., that it is also vital to recognize its limitations and potentially misleading interpretations.