standardised mortality ratio


standardised mortality ratio

The ratio of observed deaths to expected deaths, where the expected deaths are calculated for a similar region with a similar age and gender mix, by assessing the death rates for different ages and genders in a larger population. Where an SMR is expressed as a ratio, a value of greater than 1.0 means that there is a higher-than-expected number of deaths; less than 1.0 means they will be lower than expected.