Health Status Indicators

• Indicators used to measure and understand health status:

  • Incidence
  • Prevalence
  • Morbidity
  • Burden of disease
  • Disability-adjusted life year (DALY)
  • Life expectancy
  • Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE)
  • Mortality (including maternal, infant and under 5)
  • Self-assessed health status
• Health status is an individual's or a population's overall health, considering aspects like life expectancy, disability, and disease risk factors
• Health status indicators are standard statistics used to measure and compare health status
• Data is used for tracking trends in health status over time, identifying groups with different health levels, targeting areas for intervention, and evaluating implemented health improvements
• Mortality indicators include maternal mortality, infant mortality, under 5 mortality, and life expectancy
• Indicators related to ill-health include morbidity, incidence, prevalence, and self-assessed health status
• Combined indicators include health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE), burden of disease, and disability-adjusted life year (DALY)
• Interpreting data in graphs:

  • Use the KATNUTS acronym
  • K ey
  • A xis
  • T itle
  • N otes
  • U nits
  • T rend and patterns
  • S timulus information
• Incidence helps understand new cases emerging and where they come from, while prevalence shows how widespread a condition is and its impact on the healthcare system
• Self-assessed health status is an individual's opinion on their health, state of mind, and life in general
• Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) measures the average length of time an individual can expect to live in full health
• Burden of disease measures the impact of diseases and injuries, while DALY calculates the years of healthy life lost due to illness or death
• Burden of disease helps guide money towards treatments, compare conditions, and drive public policy decisions