Proportionate Mortality Rate can be used to describe:

• A. The share of deaths due to a specific cause among all deaths in the population
• B. The number of new cases per year
• C. The prevalence of a disease in the population
• D. The risk of developing a disease after exposure

Answer: (A)

Proportionate Mortality Rate describes the share of deaths due to a specific cause within all deaths in a population over a defined period. It answers, what fraction of deaths are from that cause? It isn’t about how many people develop a disease (incidence), how many people have it at a given time (prevalence), or the risk of developing it after exposure. Instead, it uses death counts and expresses the portion of mortality attributable to that cause. For example, if there are 1,000 deaths in a year and 200 are due to heart disease, the PMR for heart disease is 20%. This measure helps compare the relative importance of causes of death across populations, though it can be influenced by how many deaths come from other causes and by the population’s age structure.