Patters of Disease Globally and Over Time Flashcards
How has the burden of disease changed over time?
Has moved from deaths due to communicable diseases to deaths due to non-communicable diseases because we are living longer (and older ages are where you are more likely to develop these non-communicable diseases)
How is the burden of disease distributed for high income vs. low income?
High income is more due to non-communicable diseases whereas low income is more due to communicable diseases and road injuries
What is a DALY?
Disability-adjusted life years.
- It is an integrated measure of health loss. It is the sum of years of life lost and years of life lived with disability, adjusted for severity. One DALY represents the loss of one year of life lived in full health.
How are the DALY rate and total number of DALYs changing over time and why?
DALY rate over time is slightly decreasing as this means we have adjusted for population age and their quality of life.
Number of DALYs over time is increasing because NZ has a growing aging population but an increase in proportion of years in poor health and disability.
What are the demographic and epidemiological transition theories?
Two theories that occur together.
Demographic transition explains:
- changes in population death and birth rates over time
- growth and change in populations over time
Epidemiological transition explains:
- changes in population disease patters over time (for communicable disease and non-communicable disease)
Describe the demographic transition seen over the years
Originally population rates were low a birth and death rates were every high. Eventually as science got better, death rate started to decrease and so did birth rate (as more children survived and contraception came about). Total population also started climbing and median age of population has increased.
