Why Is This Important?

Age-adjusted death rates are constructs that show what the level of mortality would be if no changes occurred in the age composition of the population from year to year. Age-adjusted death rates are better than crude death rates as indicators of relative risk when comparing mortality across geographic areas or between gender or racial/ethnic subgroups of the population that have different age compositions.

Definition

The number of resident deaths per 100,000 population age-adjusted to the US 2000 standard population

Data Notes

Data Sources

• Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health
  (https://www.nj.gov/health/vital/)
• Population Estimates, State Data Center, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development
  (https://www.nj.gov/labor/labormarketinformation/demographics/population-household-estimates/)
• Underlying Cause of Death, CDC WONDER On-line Database, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  (https://wonder.cdc.gov/Deaths-by-Underlying-Cause.html)

How the Measure is Calculated

• Numerator:

  The number of resident deaths

• Denominator:

  Estimated number of persons in the population

Related Health Status Outcomes Indicators:

• Crude Death Rate
• Leading Causes of Death
• Life Expectancy at Birth

Health Topic Pages Related to: Age-Adjusted Death Rate

• Mortality
• Overall Health Status