Correction for:

Ezzati M, Friedman AB, Kulkarni SC, Murray CJL (2008) The reversal of fortunes: Trends in county mortality and cross-county mortality disparities in the United States. PLoS Med 5(4): e66. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050066

In the Methods section under the heading Effects of Cross-County Migration on Life Expectancy Change, “country” should be replaced by “county” in the following sentence:

“(2) the life expectancy of all emigrants was 1 y higher than the life expectancy of those who stayed in the country of origin.”

The correct text is:

“(2) the life expectancy of all emigrants was 1 y higher than the life expectancy of those who stayed in the county of origin.”

In the fifth paragraph of the Results section, the text that reads “(women in the worst-performing group, group 6, actually experienced a rise in cardiovascular mortality in the oldest age group)” should be dropped. The sentence should simply read:

“The rise in mortality for these causes in 1983–1999 was no longer compensated by the decline in cardiovascular mortality because cardiovascular decline became substantially smaller than it was in 1961–1983.”

Figure 4 should be replaced with the corrected Figure 4 below. (The original figure incorrectly showed the probability of dying in 1999, instead of the difference between 1999 and 1983, for group 6 for females in the 75–84 y age group in 1983–1999 only. Data for all other groups were correct.) The conclusions of the paper remain unchanged.

In the legend for Figure 4, the sentence “Group 6 for females in 1983–1999 is shown on a different scale to increase resolution for all other groups” should be dropped. The correct legend for Figure 4 appears below.

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Figure 4. Change in Probability of Dying in Specific Age Ranges between 1961 and 1983 and between 1983 and 1999, with Counties Grouped on the Basis of the Level of Change in Life Expectancy as in Figure 3

The total height of each column shows the change in the probability of dying (from all causes) in the age range shown, divided into the probability of dying from specific diseases and injuries. The change is calculated as the probability of death in the end year minus that of the initial year. Therefore, a positive number indicates an increase in mortality, and a negative number indicates a decline in mortality (disease-specific or all-cause for the net effects of all diseases).

Notes: Results are not shown for 5–14 y because there are few deaths in these ages in the United States. Groups with less than 0.2% of the country's population (groups 4 and 6 for both sexes in 1961–1983, and group 4 for males in 1983–1999) have not been shown because the results are based on too few deaths. COPD and lung cancer are presented together and changed in the same direction for all age and county group. The other noncommunicable disease group includes diabetes, for which the direction of change in probability of death is identical to other noncommunicable diseases exclusive of diabetes.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050119.g001

In Dataset S1, the data for group 6 for females in the 75–84 y age group in 1983–1999 have been corrected. See the corrected Dataset S1 below.

Supporting Information