Mortality rates can be further stratified by combinations of cause, age, sex, and/or race. For example, in 2002, the death rate from diseases of the heart among women ages 45–54 years was 50.6 per 100,000.9 The death rate from diseases of the heart among men in the same age group was 138.4 per 100,000, or more than 2.5 times as high as the comparable rate for women. These rates are a cause-, age-, and sex-specific rates, because they refer to one cause (diseases of the heart), one age group (45–54 years), and one sex (female or male).