Chapter Two - Measurements And Indicators Of Health Status Of Australia's Youth Flashcards
What Is Health Status
‘An individual or population’s overall health, taking into account the various aspects such as life expectancy, amount of disability and levels of disease risk factors’
When Gathering Data Of Health Status…
Physical health is generally the easiest to measure and therefore form the basis of majority of the health data available
Self-Assessed Health Status
Theory Summary-
Is an overall measure of a population’s health based on a persons own perception of their health and wellbeing
Life Expectancy
‘An indication of how long a person can expect to live; it is the number of years remaining to a person at a particular age if death rates do not change’
Mortality
‘The number of deaths in the population in a given period of time’
Mortality Rate
‘The measure the proportion of a population who die in a one-year period’
Years Of Life Lost (YLL)
YLL due to premature death is another way of measuring and comparing mortality
If a person dies from a given condition thirty years before their predicted life expectancy for their age, then they have contributed thirty YLL to that cause of death
YLL Example
If a female dies in a car accident (fifteen year old) and the life expectancy for females is eighty-five, then seventy years have been added to YLL for females
Morbidity
‘Refers to ill health in an individual and the levels of ill health in a population or group’
As mortality rates have fallen, morbidity rates for many cases have increased
Prevalence
‘The number or proportion of cases of a particular disease or condition present in a population at a given time’
Incidence
‘The number or rate of new cases of a disease during a specific period of time’
Years Lost Due To Disability (YLD)
YLD is a measure of the impact of morbidity on a group or population
Estimated life expectancy (90yrs) – Age diagnosed with diabetes (65yrs) = Years of Life Lost Disability (15yrs)
YLL Vs YLD
YLL and YLD have equal value, in that one YLL and one YLD are equal to one healthy year of life lost
The difference is that YLL is caused by premature death and YLD is caused by losing healthy years of life because of living with an illness, disease or disability
Burden Of Disease
‘A measure of the impact of disease and injuries, specifically it measures the gap between the current health status and the 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’
1 DALY = Disability Adjusted Life Years = 1yr healthy life lost
Rate Of Hospitalisation
The frequency of hospital admissions
Core Activity Limitation
Relates to the three main areas of life (self-care, mobility and communication in own language), if an individual has any difficulty in the three core activities, they may have a CAL
Four Levels Of Core Activity Limitation
Profound - those who have answered yes to always needing help
Severe - those who don’t always need help, but may require help at times
Moderate - those who have difficulty with tasks
Mild - those who simply require aids to undertake a task
Psychological Distress
Relates to the unpleasant feelings and emotions that have an impact on an individual’s level of function
Measuring Health Status
There are a number of ways of measuring health status and these measures are collectively known as health indicators - standard statistics that are used to measure and compare health status
Health Status Indicators
- self-assessed health status
- mortality
- morbidity
- life expectancy
- burden of disease (including DALY, YLL and YLD)
- rates of hospitalisation
- psychological distress
- core activity limitation
