Crude rates can only be used to make approximate comparisons between different populations. Such comparisons are invalid when populations are different in terms of such important characteristics as age, sex, or race.

Many diseases have different impact on different groups. Adjusting rates makes it possible to perform comparisons.

Keep in mind, however, that adjusted rates are not real and are created solely for purposes of performing comparisons that would otherwise not be possible to do.

Since this can be a complicated topic, and require more space than this milieu would allow, or, do justice to this topic, log on to:

http://www.bmj.com/epidem/epid.3.htm#pgfld=1001728. Coggon, G. Rose, DJP Barker’s Epidemiology for the Uninitiated - Chapter 2

A good portion of this chapter is devoted to how to perform rate standardization.

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