Ranking of AIDS Deaths Misconstrued by Officials : Statistics: Numbers put Pasadena and Glendale near top. But study does not clarify that there are fewer homicides in those areas, inflating percentage of those dying with HIV.

Alan La Sha, director of the Pasadena AIDS Resource Center, saw the list in his morning newspaper, and his heart jumped.

The list ranked 11 large California cities in which AIDS was the leading cause of death for young men in 1990. Pasadena ranked second. He thought the ranking meant that Pasadena had a higher rate of AIDS deaths than anywhere but San Francisco, which was No. 1 on the list.

“I was very surprised,” La Sha said. “It was an unanswered question for me--how could that possibly be? I was, ‘Whoa. Wait a minute. Back up.’ ”

In Glendale, the same list jumped out at Mayor Larry Zarian. Glendale ranked No. 7. Calls poured into his KIEV-AM radio talk show. What’s happening, callers demanded. Why Glendale? Why Pasadena?

“I jumped like everybody else,” Zarian said. “I said, ‘Oh, my God, it cannot happen in our city.’ ”

In fact, the numbers can be misleading. Even the report’s authors at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledge that the numbers, which appeared in The Times and other media, have been misconstrued.

The study’s aim was to show that AIDS and related infections are the leading cause of death among men ages 25 to 44 in California and four other states, as well as 64 U.S. cities.

But the way the figures work, they tend to weight toward suburban cities that are largely white and middle-class--not because there are bigger AIDS problems but because there are fewer deaths from homicide and accidents.

“If you look at the percentage of AIDS deaths, it looks like it’s worse in Pasadena (than Los Angeles, which ranked sixth), but it’s not,” said Susan Y. Chu, the study’s co-author. “People are just not dying of other things. . . . In Los Angeles, there’s a lot of people dying of homicide or drug abuse.”

In Los Angeles, for instance, 17% of the deaths in 1990 among young men were homicides; in Pasadena, 8.5%, and in Glendale, 7.5%.

It’s just a matter of how one looks at the numbers. The study, which was released June 15, looked at percentages of AIDS deaths among all deaths, rather than the AIDS death rate, which measures how many AIDS deaths there were among the population involved.

“If you want to know which city has the bigger problem with HIV, it’s better expressed in terms of the AIDS rate rather than percentages of death,” said Dr. Richard M. Selik, the study’s co-author. “The value of looking at percentages of deaths is it allows you to compare HIV with other causes in a way that can help the people living in a particular area to set their priorities.”

The authors did not rank cities, but the media did: In California, Los Angeles was ranked No. 6, and Long Beach, No. 4. But the rate of AIDS deaths was actually higher in Long Beach than in Los Angeles.

Also, the study looked only at cities with more than 100,000 population; several smaller cities have much higher AIDS rates.

For instance, consider the AIDS death rate for young men in 1990, per 100,000 population: 38 in Glendale, and 111 in Pasadena. By comparison, the rate was 65 in Palm Springs and 588 in Laguna Beach; neither of the smaller cities was included in the study.

Nonetheless, the study’s main point is indisputable: AIDS is the leading cause of death among young males in Pasadena, Glendale and nine other California cities. The number of deaths from AIDS is rising steadily, while the number of deaths from diseases such as heart disease, cancer and strokes stays about the same.

The proportion of deaths among young adults from AIDS is high. But deaths among young adults accounted for only 7% of all deaths in 1990, a small percentage. Still, people 25 to 44 make up about half of the country’s work force, so their loss is “disproportionately disruptive,” the researchers said.

AIDS workers in Pasadena have another explanation for the figures: Cities that offer services to AIDS patients tend to attract such patients, leading to higher numbers of deaths.

The All Saints AIDS Service Center in Pasadena serves more than 2,000 people each month; in addition, the city runs the Andrew Escajeda AIDS clinic and St. Luke Medical Center offers a special unit for AIDS and cancer patients.

That’s not to say that the figures aren’t alarming, said Dina Rosen, director of client services for All Saints.

“The other thing is that Pasadena isn’t the lily white picture that people think it is,” she said. “Pasadena, wake up. We have a problem. The bottom line is that it’s a pandemic. It’s not ‘them’ anymore. It’s in our own back yard.”

Last year, Pasadena spent $243,222 on AIDS services. AIDS funds came out of a special health budget, apart from the city’s $114.7-million general fund budget for services such as libraries and police. Pasadena also has an AIDS Community Coordinating Committee that develops AIDS services in the city.

AIDS Deaths

AIDS is the leading cause of death among men ages 25 to 44 in California and four other states, according to a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But CDC officials cautioned that the rate of AIDS-related deaths in the population--rather than the percentage of deaths caused by AIDS and related infections--is a better indicator of what cities are being hit hardest by the epidemic. For instance, Pasadena is ranked No. 2 among large California cities where AIDS is the leading cause of death among young men, and Los Angeles is ranked No. 6. But Pasadena’s AIDS rate is 111 deaths per 100,000 young men; Los Angeles’ AIDS death rate for young men is higher, at 122 per 100,000.

California cities with more than 100,000 residents where AIDS is leading cause of death of men ages 25 to 44 in 1990:

1. San Francisco: 61%

2. Pasadena: 38%

3. San Diego: 37%

4. Long Beach: 36%

5. Berkeley: 34%

6. Los Angeles: 31%

7. Glendale: 30%

8. Oakland: 28%

9. Fullerton: 26%

10. Concord: 19%

11. San Jose: 19%

Los Angeles County cities:

* Pasadena

1990 pop. male 25-44: 24,334

No. of AIDS deaths: 27

Rate per 100,000: 111

Total of deaths: 71

% of AIDS deaths: 38%

* Long Beach

1990 pop. male 25-44: 80,449

No. of AIDS deaths: 124

Rate per 100,000: 154

Total of deaths: 344

% of AIDS deaths: 36%

* Los Angeles

1990 pop. male 25-44: 645,968

No. of AIDS deaths: 786

Rate per 100,000: 122

Total of deaths: 2,535

% of AIDS deaths: 31%

* Glendale

1990 pop. male 25-44: 31,762

No. of AIDS deaths: 12

Rate per 100,000: 38

Total of deaths: 40

% of AIDS deaths: 30%

Smaller cities not included in the CDC study, for comparison:

* Laguna Beach

1990 pop. males 25-44: 4,930

No. of AIDS deaths: 29

Rate per 100,000: 588

Total of deaths: 37

% of AIDS deaths: 78%

* Palm Springs

1990 pop. males 25-44: 12,386

No. of AIDS deaths: 8

Rate per 100,000: 65

Total of deaths: 38

% of AIDS deaths: 21%

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Census, Orange County Health Care Agency, Riverside County Department of Health