A personal computer system providing various graphs of mortality rates

PURPOSE: We devised observational methods for showing relations of mortality rates to age and period in various ways. And we contrived a personal computer system to realize the methods. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the methods and the system. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We contrived the system which provides some graphs useful for observing age-period-specific mortality rates. The program was written in Visual Basic on a Windows personal computer. The graphs provided by the system are bird's-eye view, contour map and mortality curves. The system is also made to present any graph desired for any specific required time. A smoothing method is also provided with the system to diminish random error, therefore the characteristics of mortality can be grasped easily. The system was applied to the mortality rates of malignant tumor for the last 45 years (1950-1994) in Japan. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Examples which show that one could easily observe the trend and structure of mortality rates by using the method were presented. Because the system can present any of the graphs instantly, so we can observe mortality step-by-step; we can seen the mortality graphs as a whole from a bird's eye view, then observe it in detail by a contour map graph, and furthermore look into the point of interest by mortality curves. Thus, the system will be useful to observe mortality rates.