health status measurement

Question 1

self assessed health status

Answer 1

reflects a person’s perception of his or her own health and wellbeing at a given point in time. Self-assessed health status data is often collected from population surveys and provides an indication of the overall level being experienced in relation to physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing.

scale from poor to excellent

Question 2

life expectancy

Answer 2

‘the number of years of life, on average, remaining to an individual at a particular age if death rates do not change.

Question 3

HALE

Answer 3

the average length of time an individual at a specific age can expect to live in full health; that
is, time lived without the health consequences of disease or injury

Question 4

mortality

Answer 4

refers to the number of deaths in a population in a given period

• infant mortality rate — measures the rate of deaths of infants before their first birthday, usually expressed per 1000 live births
• under-five mortality rate (U5MR) — measures the number of children that die before their fifth birthday, usually expressed per 1000 live births
• maternal mortality ratio — the number of mothers who die as a result of pregnancy, childbirth or associated treatment per 100 000 live births.

Question 5

morbidity

Answer 5

‘ill health in an individual and levels of ill health within a population

incidence - new cases

prevalence - total cases

Question 6

BOD

Answer 6

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

Question 7

DALY

Answer 7

a measure of burden of disease. One DALY is equal to one year of healthy life lost due to illness and/or death. DALYs are calculated as the sum of the years of life lost due to premature death and the years lived with disability for people living with the health condition or its consequences

Question 8

YLL

Answer 8

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

Question 9

YLD

Answer 9

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