Community Participation Report
Glossary
(adapted from the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Annual)
Age-adjusted rate: A rate that has taken into account influences on a crude rate, such as differences in age composition of the population. Age adjustment, using the direct method, is the application of age-specific rates in a population of interest to a standardized age distribution in order to eliminate differences in observed rates that result from age differences in the population composition. This adjustment is usually done when comparing two or more populations (such as race/ethnic groups) at one point in time or one population at two or more points in time. Age-adjusted rates are useful for comparison purposes only, not to measure absolute magnitude. (To compare absolute magnitude, numbers or crude rates are used.)3
Age-adjusted death rate: A weighted average of the age-specific death rates where the age-specific weights represent the relative age distribution of a standard population.1 AADR = Σwsi * Ri, where Ri is the age-specific death rate for age interval i and wsi denotes the standard weight for age interval i such that wsi= Psi /
Age-specific rate: Rate obtained for specific age groups (for example, age-specific fertility rate, death rate, marriage rate, illiteracy rate, school enrollment rate, etc).
Birth weight: The weight of an infant at delivery, recorded in pounds and ounces or in grams.
Cause of death: Any condition which leads to or contributes to death and is classifiable according to the tenth revision of The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).
Childbearing years: The reproductive age span of women; conventionally defined as 15 through 44 years of age for the U.S. population.
Clinical Classification Software: A coding system developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that classifies ICD-9 codes in to disease classifications
Comparison Ratio: The measure of the effect of changes between revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
Crude rate: The rate of any demographic or vital event that is based on an entire population.
Demography: The study of populations including their size, age-sex composition, distribution, density, growth, natality, mortality, nuptiality, migration, and any other characteristics which may affect these factors.
Direct Patient Care: Physicians are those who work directly with patients, and do not include researchers, administrators, or teachers.
Ethnicity: The classification of a population that shares common characteristics, such as, religion, traditions, culture, language, and tribal or national origin.
Federal poverty guidelines: The poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2).
Fertility: The actual reproductive performance of an individual, couple or a population.
Fertility rate: The number of live births, regardless of age of mother, per 1,000 women of reproductive age, 15-44 years.4
Gestation period: Number of completed weeks elapsed between the first day of the last normal menstrual period and the date of delivery.
ICD-10: The International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition. A system for classifying diseases and injuries developed by the World Health Organization and used worldwide to improve comparability of cause of death statistics reported from different countries. The tenth revision has been in use since January 1, 1999.
Infant: An individual less than one year of age.
Infant death: Death of an individual less than one year of age. Infant deaths are further classified as neonatal deaths and postneonatal deaths. (See also neonatal death and postneonatal death.)
Life expectancy: The average number of years that a person can anticipate living after a given age, usually birth. Most often based upon the current mortality experience of a population.
Live birth: The complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, which after such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached.
Low birth weight: A birth weight less than 2,500 grams or less than 5 pounds, 9 ounces.
Malignant neoplasm of the breast: (breast cancer) A tumor in the breast having the properties of invasion and metastasis.
Mean: The arithmetic average of a set of values. It is calculated as the sum of the values divided by the number of values.
Median: The value in an ordered set of values above and below which there are an equal number of values; the 50th percentile.
Morbidity: Refers to the occurrence of diseases in a population.
Mortality: Death as a component of population change.
Natality: Birth as a component of population change.
Neonatal death: Death of an infant less than 28 days of age.
Neonate: An infant less than 28 days of age.
Nosology: The division of the Bureau of Vital Statistics that classifies, for statistical purposes, causes of deaths, based on the ICD-10; the branch of medical science that deals with classification of diseases.
Population: The total of all individuals in a given area.
Postneonatal death: Death of an infant at least 28 days of age but less than one year of age.
Postneonatal death: Death of an infant at least 28 days of age but less than one year of age.
Postneonate: An infant at least 28 days of age but less than one year of age.
Preterm birth: Birth at less than 37 completed weeks of gestation.
Primary Care: Physicians are those who indicate that they have a primary specialty of General Practice, Family Practice, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and/or Gynecology, or Geriatrics, and are a sub-set of Direct Patient Care Physicians. Note:
Geriatrics began to be included in the primary care statistics in 2004.
Proportion: A portion of a population in relation to another portion of the population or to the population as a whole. Proportions are a special type of ratio in which the denominator always includes the numerator. (See also ratio.)
Race: A geographical population of humankind that possesses inherited distinctive physical characteristics that distinguish it from other populations.
Range: The distance between the smallest and largest numbers in a set of numbers.
Rate: The frequency of a demographic event in a specified period of time divided by the population at risk of the event.
Ratio: The relation of one population subgroup to another subgroup, or to the whole population. The denominator of a ratio may or may not include the numerator. If the denominator includes the numerator, it is a special type of ratio known as a proportion. (See also proportion.)
Residence: The geographic area of the usual place of abode.
Residence data: Data compiled by the usual place of residence without regard to the geographic place where the event occurred. For births and fetal deaths, the mother's usual residence is used as the place of residence.
Statistical cut-off: Date by which records of vital events for a specific year must be received in order to be included in the statistical analyses for that year.
Statistical Significance: Used to evaluate the likelihood that chance variability may be considered an explanation for observed results. An appropriate mathematical test of statistical significance is calculated to determine the p value, which is the probability that the observed results may be due to chance alone. If the p value is less than an arbitrarily chosen value, commonly selected as 0.05, the findings are accepted as statistically significant at the 5 percent level. This indicates there is less than 5 percent probability that the observed results are due to chance alone.
Texas Vital Statistics Law: Texas Health and Safety Code, Title 3.
Underlying cause of death: The disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury.
Very low birth weight: A birth weight less than 1500 grams, or less than 3 pounds, 5 ounces.
Vital event: An occurrence of birth, adoption, induced abortion, marriage, divorce or death, together with any change in civil status, shown as number on tables.
Vital statistics: Demographic data on abortions, births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages and divorces.
Vital Statistics Unit: The office within the Texas Department of State Health Services charged with the implementation of the Texas Vital Statistics Law. (See also Texas Vital Statistics Law.) Functions within the Bureau include the registration, preparation, transcription, collection, compilation, and preservation of data pertaining to births, adoptions, deaths, stillbirths, marital status, and data incidental thereto.
Years of potential life lost (YPLL): A measure of premature mortality for Bexar County YPLL is calculated for individuals who die before age 65. The sum of the years of life lost annually by persons who suffered early deaths.
YPLL =
The YPLL rate is the number of years of potential life lost before age 65 per 1,000 population ages 0-64.
YPLL Rate = ( YPLL / Population < 65 Years of Age ) * 1000 1) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Healthy People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health. 2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2000. 2) Anderson, R.N., and Rosenberg, H.M. Age Standardization of Death Rates: Implementation of the Year 2000 Standard. National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 47, No. 3 Hyattsville, MD: NCHS, 1998. 3) Shryock, H.S., and Siegel, J.S. The Methods and Materials of Demography. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1976. 4) Arthur Haupt and Thomas T. Kane, Population Handbook (Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, Inc., 1978), p. 54.