health status indicators

Question 1

incidence

Answer 1

the number or rate of new cases of a particular condition during a specific time

Question 2

prevalence

Answer 2

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

Question 3

morbidity

Answer 3

refers to ill-health in an individual and the levels of ill-health in a population or group

Question 4

mortality

Answer 4

the number of deaths caused by a particular disease, illness or other environmental factor

Question 5

burden of disease

Answer 5

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. It is measured in DALYs

Question 6

disability adjusted life year (DALY)

Answer 6

a measure of the burden of disease - one DALY equals one year of healthy life lost due to premature death and time lived with illness, disease and injury

Question 7

life expectancy

Answer 7

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 8

health adjusted life expectancy (HALE)

Answer 8

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

Question 9

self-assessed health status

Answer 9

an overall measure of a population’s health based on a person’s own perceptions of their health

Question 10

maternal mortality

Answer 10

refers to the number of deaths of women due to pregnancy or childbirth-related complications

Question 11

infant mortality

Answer 11

the number of deaths among children aged under 1 year in a given period, per 1000 live births at the same period

Question 12

under 5 mortality

Answer 12

the number of deaths of children under 5 years of age per 1000 live births

Question 13

years of life lost (YLL)

Answer 13

the fatal burden of disease of a population, defined as the years of life lost due to death

Question 14

years lost due to disability (YLD)

Answer 14

the non-fatal component of the disease burden; a measurement of the healthy years lost due to diseases or injuries