Chapter 1: Measuring Health Status Flashcards
Define 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.
Define Health
A state of complete physical, social and mental wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.
Define physical health
Relates to the efficient functioning of the body and its systems, and includes the physical capacity to perform tasks and physical fitness.
Define social health
Being able to interact with others and participate in the community in both an independent and cooperative way
Define mental health
State of wellbeing in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.
Define life expectancy
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
Define health adjusted life expectancy
A measure of burden of disease, based on life expectancy at birth, but including an adjustment for time spent in poor health. It is the number of years in full health that a person can expect to live based on current rates of ill health and mortality.
Define mortality
The number of deaths caused by a particular disease, illness or other environmental factor.
Define under-five mortality rate
The number of deaths of children under five years of age per 1000 live births.
Define morbidity
Refers to ill health in an individual and the levels of ill health in a population or group.
Define burden of disease
A measure of the impact of diseases and injuries. Specifically it measures the gap between current health status and 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.
Define DALY
A measure of burden of disease - one DALY equals one year of healthy life lost due to premature death and time lived with illness, disease or injury.
Define years of life lost
The fatal burden of disease of a population, defined as the years of life lost due to death.
Define years lost due to disability
The non-fatal component of the disease burden and is a measurement of the healthy years lost due to diseases or injuries.
Define prevalence
The number or proportion of cases of a particular disease or condition present in a population at a given time.
