Introduction to Epidemiology 6th Edition by Ray M Merrill

Exercise 10

Develop and show the formula for the age-adjusted digestive cancer mortality rates for the top four at-risk occupations for this disease found in Table 1.

Table 1 Age-Adjusted Mortality Rates for Occupational Groups and Cause of Death Per 100,000

Occupational Group	Cirrhosis Mortality Rate	Digestive Cancer Mortality Rate	Injury Mortality Rate	Suicide Mortality Rate	Homicide Mortality Rate
Executive, administrative, and managerial	13.6	25.1	32.47	13.72	10.02
Professional specialty	15.24	23.76	35.79	20.39	7.97
Technicians and related support areas	19.82	26.47	54.86	22.99	8.83
Sales	16.72	26.17	35.58	17.43	12.62
Administrative support, including clerical	13.5	20.07	23.97	12.15	7.58
Private household service	15.07	22.46	16.79	7.14	17.14
Protective service	36.17	40.46	61.02	33.95	38.13
Other service	29.66	26.46	47.97	18.28	25.6
Farming, forestry, and fishing	41.23	28.56	158.87	23.75	56.68
Precision production, craft and repair	33.98	34.69	91.29	32.78	30.51
Machine operators and assemblers	25.67	27.76	55.66	19.23	26.49
Transportation and material moving	39.58	38.45	112.84	28.41	34.64
Handlers, equipment, cleaners, and laborers	75.97	52.26	129.14	39.33	77.11
State of California	20.07	21.01	50.44	18.71	18.64

Step 1 of 7

For the calculation of the mortality rates for each of the thirteen identified occupational groups, the numerator was the number of deaths specific to an occupational group caused by a particular underlying cause. This includes all the individuals that died because of the particular cause of death (for example cirrhosis) and belonged to the occupational group.

The denominator was common for every occupational group and was from the 20% sample of California Census of 1980. This was 173,438 deaths that occurred in California from 1979 to 1981.