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Tutorial 4: Searching Using Two Variables
Searching with two variables allows a user to compare the risks of dying across multiple groups. With this site, many questions can be answered. For example: For which causes do men have a higher death risk than females? Or, alternatively, how does accident risk across different age groups compare between the US and Europe?
To complete a two-variable search, you need to make selections in both Step 1: Primary Comparison and Step 2: Secondary Comparison. The option selected in Step 1 will determine what items will be in each row of the output table. For example, if you select Age in Step 1, then each row will be a different age category. The option selected in Step 2 will determine what items will be in each column. For example, if you select Gender in Step 2, then there will be two columns, one for males and one for females. Step 3 still allows you to make the search specific for a particular group or cause. Figure 4-1 illustrates the general layout for these four steps.
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Figure 4-1: Two-variable search
Walking through an example will help explain the different options. Suppose you wanted to compare the one-year US suicide risk for males and females across different age categories.
To do this (see Figures 4-2 and 4-3),
- Step 1: Primary Comparison: Select Age
- Step 2: Secondary Comparison: Select Gender
- Step 3: Search Criteria: Select specific demographics of the population of interest
- Age: Not selectable because it’s selected in Step 1
- Gender: Not selectable because it’s selected in Step 2
- US or EU: United States
- Region: All
- Race: All
- Cause of Death: Suicide
- Simple Language: Use the default Simple Language
- Forecast Period: Dying within 1 year is only available because Age is selected in Step 1.
- Step 4: Submit: Click on the Submit button to complete the search
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Figure 4-2: Setting categories
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Figure4-3: Specifications
The results from this search, including the summary of the search criteria, are shown in Figure 4-4. D ouble check to make sure that you have completed the search that you wanted to do. Figure 4-4 uses the default display settings. We explain further display options in Tutorial 5.
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Figure 4-4: Resulting chart form age and gender comparison for suicide risk in the US
The output table reveals a number of interesting results. The first column shows the age categories in ten-year blocks, except the first (5-9 years old) and last (80 and older). The second and third columns show the risk (in MicroMorts) for men and women, respectively. The output reveals that male suicide risks are greater than females for every age category (except the youngest where there is no risk). The suicide risk for women increases to age 40-49, and then decreases as women get older. For men, however, the suicide generally continue to increase, with the 80+ category having the highest risk, with males being more than 11 times more likely to commit suicide than women.
To compare two specific groups, a custom search is needed. Tutorial 5 shows how this is done.