measuring health status

chapter 2 definitions

health status

an individual’s or population’s overall level of health and wellbeing taking into account

various indicators such as life expectancy, mortality and morbidity

health indicators

standard statistics that are used to measure

and compare health status (e.g. life expectancy, mortality rates, morbidity rates)

trend

a general change or movement in a particular

direction. For example, trends indicate a significant increase in obesity rates over the past 20 years.

self-assessed health status

An individual’s own opinion about how they feel about their health, their state of mind and their life in general

life expectancy

the number of years of life, on average,

remaining to an individual at a particular age if death rates do not change.

health adjusted life expectancy (HALE)

the average length of time an individual at a specific age can expect to live in full health; that

is, time lived without the health consequences of disease or injury

mortality

relates to death, often at a population level

mortality rate

the measure of the proportion of a population who die in a one-year period (usually per 100 000); sometimes referred to as ‘death rate’

under 5 mortality rates

the number of deaths of children under five years of age per 1000 live births

infant mortality

deaths in children between birth and their first birthday

under 5 mortality

relates to deaths in children between birth

and their fifth birthday

maternal mortality ratio

the number of mothers who die as a result of pregnancy, childbirth or associated treatment per 100 000 women who give birth

maternal mortality

death of a mother during pregnancy, childbirth

or within six weeks of delivery

morbidity

ill health in an individual and levels of ill health

within a population (often expressed through incidence and prevalence)

incidence

refers to the number of new cases of a disease/condition in a population (per 100 000) during a given period (usually 12 months)

prevalence

he total number of a population of cases of a particular disease/condition present in a population during a given time

burden of disease

a measure of the impact of diseases and injuries, specifically the gap between current health status and an ideal situation where everyone lives to an old age free of disease and disability

how is burden of disease measured?

DALY

disability-adjusted life year (DALY)

a measure of burden of disease. one DALY is equal to one year of healthy life lost due to illness and/or death

how is DALY measured?

YLL + YLD

years of life lost (YLL)

a measure of how many years of expected life are lost due to premature death

years lived with disability (YLD)

a measure of how many healthy years of life are lost due to disease, injury or disability.