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3.2 Age-Adjusted Rate Calculations

Age-adjusted rates may be preferred for injuries that occur more often among certain age groups than others. For instance, fall-related deaths are more common among the elderly than any other age group. Age adjustment enables you to compare injury death rates across regions, states, and counties without concern that patterns on the maps are simply due to differences in the age distributions of the populations in the different areas.

WISQARS Fatal Injury Mapping uses the direct method to calculate age-adjusted rates. The standard population used for age adjustment represents the U.S. population for the year 2000. This standard population is consistent with data being tracked for the year 2010 objectives of the U.S. Public Health Service.³ WISQARS age-adjusted rates may differ slightly from those published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), because WISQARS uses 5-year age groups in its calculations while NCHS uses 10-year age groups.¹

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