chapter 2

• health status


  is an individual’s or a population’s overall health (and wellbeing), taking into account various aspects such as life expectancy, amount of disability and levels of disease risk factors
• health indicators


  ways we can measure health status
• self assessed health status 


  based on an individual’s own perception of their health and wellbeing. 
• Life expectancy


  is 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 
• mortality


  the number of deaths in a population in a given period
• burden of disease

  • measures the impact of diseases and injuries
  • measures the gap between current health status and an ideal situation where everyone lives to an old age free of disease and disability
  • measured by DALY.
• core activity


  relate to three main areas of life: self-care, mobility and communication
• core activity limitation 


  when an individual has difficulty, or requires assistance, with any of the three core activities
• Disability adjusted life years (DALY)

  • measure of burden of disease
  • One DALY = one year of healthy life lost due to illness and/or death.
  • calculated = 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. 
• Hospital separations


  episodes of hospital care that start with admission and end at transfer, discharge or death
• incidence refers to the number (or rate) of new cases of a disease/condition in a population during a given period
• life expectancy 


  the number of years of life, on average, remaining to an individual at a particular age if death rates do not change. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth. 
• morbidity

  ill health in an individual and levels of ill health within a population
• prevalence 


  the number or proportion of cases of a particular disease or condition present in a population at a given time
• Years lost due to disability (YLD) 

  a measure of how many healthy years of life are lost due to disease, injury or disability
• Years of life lost (YLL) 


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


  relates to unpleasant feelings and emotions that affect an individual’s level of functioning
• hospitalisation


  refers to how many people in a population are admitted to hospital
• aboriginal and torres strait islander self-assessed health status


  described as lower than non-indigenous health and wellbeing statusdue to health and well-being priorities, lack of resources
• aboriginal and torres strait islander causes for hospitalisation in order

  • injury, poisoning and external factors
  • respiratory
  • digestive
  • mental and behavioural disorders