Epidemiology and Population Health
Problem Set 1 Disease transmission, measures of disease occurrence, adjustment of rates, statistics review section Question 1 (40 points) Along with information from the MMWR reading for Week 1, data for this problem will come from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's "CDC Wonder" website at http://wonder. cdc. gov/ 1) Fill in the deaths in the Table below using the death numbers for 2014 from Tables 1 and 2 in the MMWR (you will have to add the death counts from each table to get the totals requested) 2) Fill in the population for each of the age groups listed in the table (Hint: this will be the same across type of drug overdose). To get overall population data:
a. Go to https://wonder. cdc. gov/ b. Click on now click on "Bridged-Race Population (from NCHS)." c. Choose "Data Request" for 1990-2016.
d. Group results by age.
e. Scrolling down to section 3, choose "Age Group." f. Request a population count for 2014. You have the right table if the total population is 318, 563, 456. Print or save these data.
You now have the data you need to answer Question 1.
a) Calculate the age-specific death rate and overall death rate per 100, 000 population for each drug category (You may use a spreadsheet program like excel or just a calculator). 10 points Number and Age-specific Death rates of drug overdose deaths Age Group Type 1: Heroin and Synthetic opioids other than methadone Type 2: Methadone and Natural and semisynthetic opioids Deaths Population Rate/100, 000 Deaths Population Rate/100, 000 0-14 42 61, 066, 323 . 069 14 61, 066, 323 . 023 15-24 726 43, 948, 696 1. 652 241 43, 948, 696 . 548 25-34 2, 115 43, 459, 765 4. 867 796 43, 459, 765 1. 832 35-44 2, 644 40, 445, 474 6. 537 768 40, 445, 474 1. 899 45-54 3, 488 43, 396, 769 8. 037 854 43, 396, 769 1. 968 55-64 2, 437 40, 034, 743 6. 087 629 40, 034, 743 1. 571 >65 706 46, 211, 686 1. 528 98 46, 211, 686 0. 212 Total 12, 158 318, 563, 456 3. 817 3400 318, 563, 456 1. 067 c) Which drug type has the highest overall crude mortality rate? Is the same true for all age groups? Create and attach a graph of the age-specific crude mortality rates with one line for each drug type (you might also want to use excel for this or a neatly sketched graph will suffice). What can you say about drug overdose death in the US from this information? 10 points Overall, Heroin and Synthetic opioids other than methadone have the highest overall crude mortality rate.
From the graph, we see that it is also consistent throughout all age groups that Heroin and Synthetic Opioids other than Methadone have the highest overdose deaths.
e) Using the standard population below (roughly the 2000 census standard), calculate age-adjusted overall mortality rate for type of drug overdose and fill in the table below. 10 points Age Standard population (in thousands) Type 1 Mortality Rate Expected # of deaths Type 2 Mortality Rate Expected # of deaths 0-14 60, 000 15...
