)/cmu-logo.jpg "Carnegie Mellon"){kind=logo}
Tutorial 5: Customized Searches
The Custom option in Step 2 Secondary Comparison provides users with an opportunity to compare two specific populations (for example, compare the risk and causes of deaths for 21-year old males in Pennsylvania and France).
To do this (see Figures 5-1),
- Step 1: Primary Comparison: Select Causes of Death
- Step 2: Secondary Comparison: Select Custom
- Step 3: Search Criteria: Select specific demographics about the person of interest (yourself).
- Age: 21
- Gender: Male
- US or EU: United States
- Region: Pennsylvania
- Race: White
- Cause of Death: Not selectable because it’s selected in Step 1
- Simple Language: Use the default Simple Language
- Forecast Period: Dying within 1 year is only available with Custom searches
- Repeat the step for Comparison Group 2, but this time for a 21-year old in France.
- Age: 21
- Gender: Male
- US or EU: Europe
- Region: France
- Race: Not selectable because race data is not available for Europe
- Cause of Death: Not selectable because it’s selected in Step 1
- Forecast Period: Dying within 1 year
- Step 4: Submit: Click on the Submit button to complete the search
)/images/figure51.jpg "Figure 5-1")
Figure 5-1: Criteria for individual search
To add other groups to the comparison (for example, a 21-year old German male), the user can click on the Add New Comparison link as seen in Figure 5-2. This will new input boxes as shown in Figure 5-3.
)/images/figure52.jpg "Figure 5-2")
Figure5-2: Expanding search
Because two groups are being compared, there are two entries (separated by commas) for each parameter in the Search Parameter box.
)/images/figure53.jpg "Figure 5-3")
Figure 5-3: Details about the search
)/images/figure54.jpg "Figure 5-4")
Figure 5-4: Customization outputs
Output from this search is shown in Figure 5-4. Group 1 is the 21-year old male in Pennsylvania (the first set of search criteria) and Group 2 is corresponding person in France. The results can be sorted by clicking on Group 1 or Group 2.
The output reveals that the Frenchman has a lower risk of dying (929 MicroMorts compared to 1,320 MicroMorts for the Pennsylvanian, approximately 30% lower risk). Most of this difference can be attributed to the risk of death from accidents, suicides, and homicides (ASH). The total of these differences is 405 MicroMorts. ASH causes account for 80% (1,058/1,320) of the Pennsylvanian’s risk but only 70% (653/929) of the Frenchman’s risk.