1.1.6

Question 1

health status

Answer 1

an individual’s or populations overall level of health, taking into account various factors such as life expectancy, amount of disability and levels of disease risk factors

Question 2

burden of disease

Answer 2

a measure of the impact of diseases and injuries, specifically it measures an ideal situation where everyone lives to an old age free of disease and disability. burden of disease is measured in a unit called the DALY

Question 3

YLD (years lost due to disability)

Answer 3

a measure of how many ‘healthy’ years of life are lost due to illness, injury or disability

Question 4

YLL (years of life lost)

Answer 4

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

Question 5

DALY (disability adjusted life years)

Answer 5

one DALY is equal to one year of ‘healthy’ life lost due to premature death and time living with an illness, disease or injury

Question 6

life expectancy

Answer 6

an indication of how long a person can expect to live. it is the number of years of life remaining to a person at a particular age if death rates do not change

Question 7

prevalence

Answer 7

the number or proportion of cases of a particular disease or condition present in a population at a given time
- exisiting + new cases

Question 8

incidence

Answer 8

refers to the number (or rate) of new cases of a disease/condition in a population during a given time period

Question 9

trends

Answer 9

a long-term general movement or change in frequency, usually either upwards or downwards, i.e. an upward trend in a disease or unhealthy behaviour means that it is becoming more frequent