The STDRATE Procedure
- Overview
- Getting Started
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Syntax
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DetailsRateRiskDirect StandardizationMantel-Haenszel Effect EstimationIndirect Standardization and Standardized Morbidity/Mortality RatioAttributable Fraction and Population Attributable FractionApplicable Data Sets and Required Variables for Method SpecificationsApplicable Confidence Limits for Rate and Risk StatisticsTable OutputODS Table NamesGraphics OutputODS Graphics
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Examples
- References
Overview: STDRATE Procedure
Epidemiology is the study of the occurrence and distribution of health-related states or events in specified populations. Epidemiology also includes the study of the determinants that influence these states, and the application of this knowledge to control health problems (Porta 2008). It is a discipline that describes, quantifies, and postulates causal mechanisms for health phenomena in populations (Friss and Sellers 2009). A common goal is to establish relationships between various factors (such as exposure to a specific chemical) and the event outcomes (such as incidence of disease). But the measure of an association between an exposure and an event outcome can be biased due to confounding. That is, the association of the exposure to some other variables, such as age, influences the occurrence of the event outcome. With confounding, the usual effect between an exposure and an event outcome can be biased because some of the effect might be accounted for by other variables. For example, with an event rate discrepancy among different age groups of a population, the overall crude rate might not provide a useful summary statistic to compare populations.
One strategy to control confounding is stratification. In stratification, a population is divided into several subpopulations according to specific criteria for the confounding variables, such as age and sex groups. The effect of the exposure on the event outcome is estimated within each stratum, and then these stratum-specific effect estimates are combined into an overall estimate.
Two commonly used event frequency measures are rate and risk:
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A rate is a measure of the frequency with which an event occurs in a defined population in a specified period of time. It measures the change in one quantity per unit of another quantity. For example, an event rate measures how fast the events are occurring. That is, an event rate of a population over a specified time period can be defined as the number of new events divided by population-time (Kleinbaum, Kupper, and Morgenstern 1982, p. 100) over the same time period.
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A risk is the probability that an event occurs in a specified time period. It is assumed that only one event can occur in the time period for each subject or item. The overall crude risk of a population over a specified time period is the number of new events in the time period divided by the population size at the beginning of the time period.
Standardized overall rate and risk estimates based on stratum-specific estimates can be derived with the effects of confounding variables removed. These estimates provide useful summary statistics and allow valid comparison of the populations. There are two types of standardization:
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Direct standardization computes the weighted average of stratum-specific estimates in the study population, using the weights from a standard or reference population. This standardization is applicable when the study population is large enough to provide stable stratum-specific estimates. The directly standardized estimate is the overall crude rate in the study population if it has the same strata distribution as the reference population. When standardized estimates for different populations are derived by using the same reference population, the resulting estimates can also be compared by using the estimated difference and estimated ratio statistics.
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Indirect standardization computes the weighted average of stratum-specific estimates in the reference population, using the weights from the study population. The ratio of the overall crude rate or risk in the study population and the corresponding weighted estimate in the reference population is the standardized morbidity ratio (SMR). This ratio is also the standardized mortality ratio if the event is death. SMR is used to compare rates or risks in the study and reference populations. With SMR, the indirectly standardized estimate is then computed as the product of the SMR and the overall crude estimate for the reference population. SMR and indirect standardization are applicable even when the study population is so small that the resulting stratum-specific rates are not stable.
Assuming that an effect, such as the rate difference between two populations, is homogeneous across strata, each stratum provides an estimate of the same effect. A pooled estimate of the effect can then be derived from these stratum-specific effect estimates. One way to estimate a homogeneous effect is the Mantel-Haenszel method (Greenland and Rothman 2008, p. 271). For a homogeneous rate difference effect between two populations, the Mantel-Haenszel estimate is identical to the difference between two directly standardized rates, but with weights derived from the two populations instead of from an explicitly specified reference population. The Mantel-Haenszel method can also be applied to other homogeneous effects between populations, such as the rate ratio, risk difference, and risk ratio.
The STDRATE procedure computes directly standardized rates and risks for study populations. For two study populations with the same reference population, PROC STDRATE compares directly standardized rates or risks from these two populations. For homogeneous effects across strata, PROC STDRATE computes Mantel-Haenszel estimates. The STDRATE procedure also computes indirectly standardized rates and risks, including SMR.
The attributable fraction measures the excess event rate or risk fraction in the exposed population that can be attributed to the exposure. The rate or risk ratio statistic is required in the attributable fraction computation, and the STDRATE procedure estimates the ratio by using either SMR or the rate ratio statistic in the Mantel-Haenszel estimates.
Although the STDRATE procedure provides useful summary standardized statistics, standardization is not a substitute for individual comparisons of stratum-specific estimates. PROC STDRATE provides summary statistics, such as rate and risk estimates and their confidence limits, in each stratum. In addition, PROC STDRATE also displays these stratum-specific statistics by using ODS Graphics.
Note that the term standardization has different meanings in other statistical applications. For example, the STDIZE procedure standardizes numeric variables in a SAS data set by subtracting a location measure and dividing by a scale measure.