A. What absolute measure of association can be calculated? Provide an explanation.

Question

Mortality Rates by Race and Ethnicity

total: 703.5

White: 710.7

Black: 805.8

Asian: 372.5

Hispanic: 458.2

*rates are per 100,000 population and age adjusted to the US standard population*

Answer 1

You can use a ratio to compare a race to the average, or you can use it to compare against any other race (i.e., african american to asian) to find a difference.

Another option, and I am just guessing, is you can do a Risk Ratio by combining the rates of all the groups except one, and then getting a Non-whatever rate (whatever race you are looking at, e.g., latino vs. non-latino) and get a Risk Ratio, that would look something like

Latino x all / (everyone but latino) x all

I'm not exactly sure to what your prof. is referring to as far as Absolute measure of association, but that'd be my guess.

AFTER LOOKING UP ABSOLUTE MEASURE OF ASSOCIATION:

According to https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/mph-modules/ep/ep713_association/EP713_Association5.html

the absolute measure of association in this case may be something called a risk difference. Basically, it is a ratio of those exposed rate to unexposed rate

i.e., (race)/100,000 - unexposed (all races except exposure)/100,000.

This is basically what I suggested in the beginning! LOL!

Good luck. Message me if you have any questions.

BTW, getting the answer is only half the problem, OK? You should really understand WHY you are doing the statistic. Asking for an answer here just to finish an assignment may be doing yourself a disservice -- you should really strive to figure out this stuff yourself. I know it's hard, but it will pay off 100 fold in the future!