Public Health Concepts and Health Indicators

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering definitions, dimensions, determinants, and quantitative formulas for public health, morbidity, mortality, and fertility rates.

Public Health

The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental health and efficiency thru organized community effort.

Voluntary Health Agencies

Private health agencies supported wholly or in large part by non-tax funds, such as NGOs, private clinics, and private foundations.

Governmental Health Agencies

Public, official, or tax-supported health agencies, such as government hospitals, health centers, and district hospitals.

WHO Definition of Health

A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.

Disease

A diagnostic category which classifies a particular illness, symptoms, or pathological components of the illness.

Illness

A highly personal stage wherein a person feels unwell; a person's experience of his disease.

Normal Health

A state of well-being in which the individual is free from disabling effect and has sufficient vigor to carry on the usual requirements of life with social adaptation that produces self-gratification and enjoyment.

Holistic Health

An approach that views a person as a whole being whose psycho-social-cultural-spiritual relationships with the environment directly affect health.

Crude Rates

Health measurement rates divided by the total population.

Specific Rates

Health measurement rates divided by a specific group of interest based on age, sex, marital status, etc.

Morbidity

Another term for illness; a person can have several co-morbidities simultaneously.

Mortality

Another term for death.

Dimensions of Health

The six dimensions of health: physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and sexual.

Determinants of Health and Disease

Factors influencing health including genes, nutrition, population problem, a person's lifestyle, and iatrogenic disease.

Essential Causes of Malnutrition

Failure to ingest food (poverty), failure to utilize food (PKU, celiac disease, pernicious anemia), and increased food requirements (childhood, adolescence, pregnancy, sickness).

Incidence Rate (IR)

A measure of risk and speed of development of a disease, defined as $\text{IR} = \frac{\text{no. of NEW cases of a disease}}{\text{population at the start of the year}} \times F$, which is most appropriate for acute conditions.

Prevalence Rate (PR)

A measure describing the occurrence of chronic conditions, calculated as $\text{PR} = \frac{\text{no. of OLD and NEW cases of a disease}}{\text{midyear population}} \times F$ or $\text{Prevalence} = \text{incidence} \times \text{average duration of disease}$.

Swaroop's Index

A special kind of PMR that serves as a sensitive indicator of the standards of health care, calculated as $\text{Swaroop's Index} = \frac{\text{no. of DEATHS among } > 50 \text{ years}}{\text{total \# of deaths}} \times 100$.

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The rate at which mortality occurs in the population, calculated as $\text{CDR} = \frac{\text{\# of DEATHS}}{\text{midyear population}} \times 1000$.

Specific Death Rates (SDR)

Rates of dying in specific population groups made specific according to age, sex, occupation, education, etc., calculated as $\text{SDR} = \frac{\text{\# of DEATHS in a specified age group}}{\text{midyear population of specified group}} \times 100,000$.

Cause-Specific Death Rates (CSDR)

The rate of dying secondary to a specific cause, calculated as $\text{CSDR} = \frac{\text{\# of DEATHS due to a specific cause}}{\text{midyear population}} \times 100,000$.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

A sensitive index of the level of health in a community, calculated as $\text{IMR} = \frac{\text{\# of DEATHS under } 1 \text{ year of age}}{\text{\# of livebirths}} \times 1,000$.

Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR)

Measures the number of deaths directly related to pregnancy, delivery, and puerperium, calculated as $\text{MMR} = \frac{\text{no. of DEATHS due to pregnancy, delivery and puerperium}}{\text{total livebirths}} \times 1,000$.

Proportionate Mortality Rate (PMR)

The proportion of total deaths occurring in a particular population group or from a specific cause, calculated as $\text{PMR} = \frac{\text{no. of DEATHS due to a specific cause or in a population group}}{\text{total \# of deaths}} \times 100$.

Case Fatality Rate (CFR)

The proportion of cases that end up in fatality, measuring the killing power of the disease, calculated as $\text{CFR} = \frac{\text{no. of DEATHS due to a specific cause}}{\text{no. of cases of the same specified cause}} \times 100$.

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

Measures how fast people are added to the population through births, calculated as $\text{CBR} = \frac{\text{\# of registered livebirths}}{\text{midyear population}} \times 1000$.

General Fertility Rate (GFR)

Relates births to the segment of the population deemed capable of giving birth, calculated as $\text{GFR} = \frac{\text{\# of registered livebirths}}{\text{midyear pop. of women } 15\text{--}44 \text{ years of age}} \times 1000$.

Reproductive Age Group for Women (Philippines)

The segment of the female population deemed capable of giving birth in the Philippines, defined as $15\text{--}44\text{ years of age}$.