Question

For each age group, estimate the relative risk for measles for females versus males. Based upon your estimates, describe in one sentence what you might conclude regarding how age might factor into any potential association between sex and measles risk.

Female

5 - 14 years = 4,577

30 - 49 years = 59

50 - 59 years = 11

Male

5 - 14 years = 5,856

30 - 49 years = 83

50 - 59 years = 8

Answer 1

The given data is:

	Males	Females
5-14 years	5856	4577
30-49 years	83	59
50-59 years	8	11

We are to estimate relative risk for females and males. First, we calculate the total of each row and each column, we get:

	Males	Females	TOTAL
5-14 years	5856	4577	10433
30-49 years	83	59	142
50-59 years	8	11	19
TOTAL	5947	4647	10594

The relative risk for males will be 5947/10594 = 0.5614 = 56.14%

And the relative risk for females will be 4647/10594 = 0.4386 = 43.86%

Hence, males are at a higher risk than females.

Similarly, we can also calculate the relative risks for different age groups. For this, we divide the total of each age group with the grand total.

Thus, we get:

For the age groups 5-14 years, relative risk is 10433/10594 = 0.9848 = 98.48%

For the age groups 30-49 years, relative risk is 142/10594 = 0.0134 = 1.34%

For the age groups 50-59 years, relative risk is 19/10594 = 0.0018 = 0.18%

Hence, we can see that the age group 5-14 years is at very high risk compared to the other age groups.

Combining both the factors of sex and age groups, we conclude that males of the age group 5-14 years are the most affected.