Chapter 3: Health Status Indicators 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
What is life expectancy?
An indication of how long a person can expect to live if current death rates remain unchanged
Define morbidity
Refers to ill health in an individual or levels ill health in a population
Define mortality
Refers to deaths in the population(statistics)
Define infirmity
A state of being weak, especially from old age or injuries.
What is incidence?
Refers to the number (or rate) of new cases of a disease/condition in a population during a given period
What is prevalence?
The number or proportion of cases of a particular disease or condition present in a population at a given time
What is genetic predisposition?
An inherited tendency to exhibit certain traits(eg.being tall) or develop certain conditions(eg.cancer) based on genetic makeup
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 DALY
Define YLD(years lost due to disability)
A measure of how many ‘healthy’ years of life lost due to illness, injury or disability.
What are health indicators?
Standard statistics that are used to measure and compare health status. Eg, life expectancy, morbidity and mortality rates
Define YLL(years of life lost)
A measure of how many ‘healthy’ years of life lost due to a premature death
what are DALYs?(disability adjusted life year)
A measure of burden of disease. One DALY equals one year of healthy life lost to premature death and any time lived with illness, disease or injuries.
