Lecture 3, part 3

Question 1

What do adjusted or standardized rates do?

Answer 1

Provides a summary weighted avg measure that adjusts for different distributions of the characteristic btwn pops

Question 2

What methods can be used for applying the weighting calc in adjusted or standardized rates?

Answer 2

Direct or indirect

Question 3

What is the single most important predictor of mortality?

Answer 3

Age

Question 4

What is done in direct age adjustment?

Answer 4

Age-specific mortality rates are applied from the two pops to a hypothetical single standard pop

Question 5

Why is a standard pop used in direct age adjustment?

Answer 5

In order to eliminate the effects of any differences in age between two or more pops being compared

Question 6

What is the purpose of direct age adjustment?

Answer 6

Allows estimation of the expected # of deaths that would have occurred if each pop had the same age distribution as the standard pop

Question 7

What can be used as a standard pop for direct age adjustment?

Answer 7

Either an outside grp or the combo of the 2 compared pops

Question 8

How does indirect age adjustment occur?

Answer 8

Age-specific rates for a known pop are applied to each grp in the pops of interest

Question 9

When is indirect age adjustment used?

Answer 9

When #s of deaths/events for each age-specific stratum are not available

Question 10

What question is answered with indirect age adjustment?

Answer 10

Whether a given pop has a higher rate than we would expect in a similar (reference) pop, if this pop had the same experience as the reference pop

Question 11

Definition of the standardized mortality ratio

Answer 11

The ratio of the total # of deaths actually observed to the total # of deaths expected