An investigator wants to compare lung cancer mortality of a small mining town with the national population but lacks reliable age-specific death rates for the town. The appropriate approach yields which summary measure?

• A Standardized mortality ratio by the indirect method ✓
• B Directly standardized mortality ratio
• C Proportional mortality ratio
• D Case fatality rate

Explanation

Indirect standardization applies the age-specific death rates of the standard (national) population to the age distribution of the small study town to give expected deaths; the ratio of observed to expected deaths is the standardized mortality ratio. Direct standardization requires stable stratum-specific rates in the study population, which are unavailable here due to small numbers. Proportional mortality ratio ignores the population denominator entirely.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 27th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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