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What are SIRs and why are they used rather than rates?

April 26, 2017rates SIRS Used

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What are SIRs and why are they used rather than rates?

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Standardized Incidence Ratio, or SIR, is a common tool for monitoring disease rates. Incidence is the number of newly diagnosed cases in a given location during a given time period. An SIR compares the actual number of cases for a given place and time to the number that would be expected based on cancer rates in some comparison area. SIRs are usually written as 100 or 125 instead of 1.00 or 1.25. An SIR of 100 means that the actual number of cases equals the expected number. An SIR of 125 means that the actual number of cases was 25% higher than expected. An SIR of 75 means that the actual number of cases was only 75% of the expected number. For more information, see our glossary.