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Article: Rates
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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RATES
A rate is a measure of the frequency of an event or phenomenon. In public health, vital statistics, epidemiology, and other aspects of the health sciences and health care, events of interest include birth, deaths (so-called vital events), outbreaks of disease, spells of sickness, hospitalizations, immunizations against infectious diseases, and many other events and phenomena. A rate is more than a number: Its aim is to compare frequencies of phenomena at different times and places, among different classes of persons. Rates are calculated by a simple arithmetical procedure:
The components of a rate are the numerator (the number of events), the denominator (the population at risk ...