6.3 Calculations

6.3.1 Summary vs By Row

There are two general types of calculations Summary Measures and By Row Measures.

Summary measures: When selected, the result will be a single measure for the entire dataset. For instance when Summary Measure - Life Expectancy (Summary Measure) is selected the result is a single life expectancy at birth for the given for the population.

By row measures: When selected, the result will be the measurement for each individual (e.g. row) in the dataset.

Note: Summary Measures are not the same as taking the average of By Row Measures. Summary measures account for the survey weights in their calculations. Only averaging the By Row Measures does not account for the survey weights and will result in an incorrect outcome.

6.3.2 Weighted vs unweighted

Weights are used in complex surveys like the Canadian Community Healthy Survey (CCHS). A weight is given to each respondent in the survey and the weight corresponds to the number of individuals in the population the respondent represents.

When a data set has weights, like the CCHS PUMF data set, the weights are used to calculate the population’s outcome e.g., number of deaths.

When a survey does not have weights, the the population’s outcome is not calculated with weights.

In either case, weights are not used in the calculation of an individual’s outcome (e.g., an individual’s 5 year risk of mortality).