If the incidence rate of a given disease (i.e. allergic rhinitis) in adults is 74.1 per 10,000 person-years, and the incidence density in children is 771.5 per 10,000 person-years, is it reasonable to assume that children are diagnosed with allergic rhinitis 10 times more often than adults?
Yes, your comparison is valid. Incidence density refers to an instantaneous incidence rate used in statistical analysis. In practice incidence is measured over a longer definite time period and this is called the incidence rate.
the rate of diagnosis of allergic rhinitis is 771.5/74.1 = 10,41 times greater in children than adults.
Yes, you can compare this results. When the denominator is the sum of the person-time (risk observed throughout the interval) of the at-risk population instead of any specified time (e.g. 1 year) it is known as Incidence density.
So Both the value are Incidence density as they were measured in person-years.
If the either one of them were Cumulative Incidence then the results could not be compared.
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