In the proportionate mortality rate calculation, which of the following is the numerator?

• A. The population size
• B. The number of deaths from all causes
• C. The number of deaths attributed to the specific disease
• D. The incidence of the disease per year

Answer: (C)

In proportionate mortality rate analysis, you’re looking at the share of all deaths that come from a specific cause. The key idea is the numerator must reflect deaths from that particular disease, not the general population or all causes. So the numerator is the number of deaths attributed to the specific disease. The denominator, by contrast, is the total number of deaths from all causes during the same time period.

This measure helps compare how prominent a particular cause is among deaths across populations or over time, rather than estimating the risk of getting the disease. For example, if there are 1,000 total deaths in a year and 100 of those are due to heart disease, the proportionate mortality rate for heart disease would be 100/1,000 (often expressed as a percentage). The other options don’t fit because population size is not used in PMR, the total deaths from all causes serve as the denominator, and incidence per year is a measure of new cases, not proportion of deaths.