A computer program to calculate indicators of descriptive epidemiology

Comparison of incidence and mortality data between areas is useful for moni toring the health status of a population, for exploring quality of health c are, and for planning studies on determinant(s) of heterogeneous patterns. Common statistical indicators involved, together with their confidence inte rvals. are age-specific and cumulative rates, age-standardized rates and ra tios, and expected numbers. The data required for calculations include info rmation of event distribution according to age and residence, and correspon ding population at risk. The calculations of these indicators. although con ceptually simple, can be a cumbersome task to carry out with available stat istical packages; lack of flexibility to suit the need of specific research es represents another problem. In order to facilitate descriptive epidemiol ogical studies, we developed a set of Statistical Analysis System macros to compute indicators but, also, to read and write data from/to some standard file formats. Important features of these macros are their flexibility, ex pandibility, and ability to be transferred to various computer platforms. M oreover, macros give an added value to raw data. The method is illustrated using published incidence data from Italy. (C) 1999 Academic Press.