Measures of health status

Question 1

Define health status

Answer 1

An individual’s or overall level of health, taking into account various aspects such as life expectancy, amount of disability, levels of disease risk
factors
(Australian Institute of Health and welfare).

Question 2

What is health indicators?

Answer 2

Standard statistics that are used to measure and compare health status (e.g. life expectancy, mortality and morbidity rates)

Question 3

What is ‘self-assessed health status?’

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is life expectancy?

Answer 4

Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time someone is expected to live, based on the year of their birth, current age and other demographic factors including their sex.

Question 5

Define Health adjusted life expectancy (HALE)

Answer 5

It is the number of years of full health that a person can expect to live, based on current rates of ill health and mortality

HALE = life expectancy – number of years living in unhealthy states

Question 6

Define mortality

Answer 6

Mortality refers to deaths particularly in a population

Question 7

Define Mortality rate

Answer 7

The measurement of the proportion of a population who die on a one year period (usually per 100,000)

Question 8

Define morbidity

Answer 8

Refers to ill health in an individual and the levels of ill health in a population or group (AIHW)

Question 9

Define morbidity rate

Answer 9

Rate is a measure of how many people suffer from a particular condition during a given period of time

Question 10

What are the two measures of morbidity?

Answer 10

Prevalence and incidence

Question 11

Define Prevalence

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Define incidence

Answer 12

The number or rate of new cases of a particular disease during a specified period of time (usually a 12 month period)

Question 13

What is the burden of disease?

Answer 13

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 disability and disease.

Question 14

YLL=?

Answer 14

Years of Life Lost

Question 15

YLD=?

Answer 15

Years lost due to disability

Question 16

DALY=?

Answer 16

Disability adjusted life year

Question 17

Define the rate of hospitalisation

Answer 17

The number of patients who experience an episode of admitted patient care
-starts with formal admission for emergency care, treatment or rehabilitation
-ends with discharge, transfer or death

Question 18

Define core activity limitation

Answer 18

Core activities relate to three main areas of life.
- If an individual has difficulty in any of the three core activities, self care, mobility and communication in own language then they may have a core activity limitation.

Question 19

What is psychological distress?

Answer 19

Refers to an individual’s overall level of psychological strain or pain, and the unpleasant feelings, emotions and individual experiences, that interferes with their ability to perform daily activities