Table 8 An example survey response from part 1.

"How does the deaths/100,000 of Allegheny County in 1996 compare to the deaths/100,000 of each of the counties that border it?"

1. I would use ArcGIS (v9.1) to open a state map and identify the counties that border Allegheny County.

2. Next, using SPSS v 13.0, I would aggregate the death file and population file to get annual death totals and populations for counties by linking the geography table to the death and population tables.

3. Next I would compute the age-adjusted death rates for counties by year using the tables generated in the previous step (SPSS v13.0)

4. Finally I would generate a report using SPSS v13.0 of 1996 death rates by county after selected Allegheny and its bordering counties.