EPICURE Rate File Format

This appendix contains a description of the format used for EPICURE rate files.

Rate files are ordinary text (ASCII) files that can be created and/or edited with any standard text editor.

Each file begins with five header lines that describe the content of the file. The header is read using a FORTRAN free-format read statement, so the column positions do not matter; however, the fields must be separated by spaces or tabs. Table A.1 describes the information and layout of the header records.

The rate tables are given after the header information. The data for each set of rates are described in Table A.2.

Table A.1. Format of EPICURE Rate File Header Records

Record	Field	Description	Values
1	1	Number of "sexes" in file	1 or 2
1	2	Number of age categories (IA)	1 to 26
1	3	Number of time periods (IT)	1 to 26
1	4	First ICD revision (for example, 7)	0
1	5	Last ICD revision (for example, 9)	0
1	6	Number of causes (for each sex); the last "cause" is assumed to be a set of weights used for combining rates a cross sexes or strata	1 to 64
2	1	Lower bound for age category 1
2	2	Lower bound for age category 2
. .	. .	. .	. .
2	IA	Lower bound for age category IA
2	IA+1	Upper bound for age category IA
3	1	Lower bound for time category 1
3	2	Lower bound for time category 2
. .	. .	. .	. .
3	IT	Lower bound for time category IT
3	IT+1	Upper bound for time category IT
4	1	Rate scaling factor, for example, if rates are per 1,000 person years, then enter 1000
5	1	FORTRAN format used to read all age-specific rates for one time period, blank record for free format

Table A.2. Format of Cause Specific Rate Data

Record type	Description
1	Title for these rates
2	ICD code range (one record for each ICD revision) Not used in EPICURE but required in the table
3	Cause-specfic rates for sex 1 (as per format)
4	Cause-specfic rates for sex 2 (if two sexes)