Health Indicators Flashcards
What are health indicators?
Standard statistics that are used to measure and compare health status. These include self-assessed health status, life expectancy and health-adjusted life expectancy, mortality, morbidity, and burden of disease.
What is health status?
An individual’s or a population’s overall health, taking into account various aspects such as life expectancy, amount of disability, and levels of disease risk factors.
What is self-assessed health status?
A commonly used indicator of health status which reflects a person’s perception of his or her own health and wellbeing at a given point in time. Data is often collected from population surveys and is subjective.
What is life expectancy?
Defined as ‘the number of years of life, on average, remaining to an individual at a particular age if death rates do not change. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth’. Life expectancy has increased by more than 30 years within in the last century.
What is HALE?
Health-adjusted life expectancy relates to the average length of time an individual at a specific age can expect to live in full health (the time lived without disease or injury).
What is mortality?
Mortality refers to the number of deaths in a population in a given period (usually 12 months).
What is mortality rate?
The number of deaths (usually expressed per 1000 or 100,000 people) in a 12-month period, from a specific cause or all causes. Mortality data allows trends in death to be identified.
What is infant mortality rate?
Measures the rate of deaths of infants before their first birthday (expressed per 1000 live births).
What is under-five mortality rate (U5MR)?
Measures the number of children that die before their fifth birthday (expressed per 1000 live births).
What is maternal mortality rate?
The number of mothers who die as a result of pregnancy, childbirth, or associated treatment per 100,000 live births.
What is morbidity?
Refers to ‘ill health in an individual and levels of ill health within a population, often expressed through incidence/prevalence’. Morbidity rate is a measure of how many people suffer from a particular condition during a given period of time.
What is incidence?
The number or rate of new cases of a disease during a specified time, usually a 12-month period.
What is prevalence?
The number or proportion of cases of a particular disease or a condition present in a population at a given time.
What is burden of disease?
Burden of disease measures the gap between current health status and an ideal situation where everyone lives to old age free of disease and disability.
What is DALY?
Disability-adjusted life year is a unit that is used to measure burden of disease. One DALY is equivalent to one year of life lost to premature death or the equivalent time of healthy years lost as a result of living with a disease or disability.
