INDICATORS OF HEALTH- ENGLISH
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Health
indicators
Health indicators Health indicators are quantifiable characteristics of a population which researchers use as supporting evidence for describing the health of a population. These data are also known as vital statistics. To formulate these statistics the information collected from the population, and then use the statistical analysis to make a statement about the health of the population
Main Health indicators are –
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Mortality indicators
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Morbidity indicators
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Nutritional status indicators
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Health care delivery indicators
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Utilization rates indicators
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Social & mental health indicators
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Environmental indicators
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Other indicators.
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Mortality indicators - Mortality indicators includes death related rates. Such as crude
death rate which is defined as the number of deaths per 1000 population per
year in a given community. Although not a perfect measure of health status, a
decrease in death rate provides a good tool for assessing the overall health
improvement in a population.
Apart from CDR there are many other mortality
indicators such as Age-specific death rates : Death rates can be
expressed for specific age groups in a population which are defined by age.
Infant mortality rate : Infant mortality rate is the ratio of deaths under
1 year of age in a given year to the total number of live births in the same
year; usually expressed as a rate per 1000 live births
Child mortality rate : Another indicator related to the overall health status
is the early childhood (1-4 years) mortality rate. Maternal mortality rate : Maternal mortality accounts for the greatest
proportion of deaths among women of reproductive age in most of the developing
world. Disease-specific mortality rate : Mortality rates can be computed
for specific diseases.
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Morbidity indicators- Morbidity indicators are the
rates related to diseases and
disorders. The following morbidity rates are used for assessing ill-health in
the community .
a. incidence and prevalence- Incidence refers
to the occurrence of new cases of disease or injury in a population over a
specified period of time. prevalence includes all cases, both new and
preexisting, in the population at the specified time,
b. notification rates- it means number of cases
of a particular disease reported to authorities at the specified time
c. OPD attendance rates- The number of cases attending at out-patient departments, of the health
facility.
d. admission, readmission and discharge rates-
at health centers.
e. duration of stay in hospital, and
f. spells of sickness or absence from work or
school
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Nutritional status indicators - Three main
nutritional status indicators are
a. anthropometric measurements of preschool children,
e.g., weight and height, mid-arm circumference;
b. heights (and sometimes weights) of children at
school entry; and
c. prevalence of low birth weight (less than 2.5 kg).
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Health care delivery indicators - Main health care delivery indicators are:
a. Doctor-population ratio
b. Doctor-nurse ratio
c. Population-bed ratio
d. Population per health/subcentre, and
e. Population per traditional birth attendant.
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Utilization rates indicators - a.
proportion of infants who are "fully immunized“ against the communicable
diseases.
b. proportion of pregnant women who receive antenatal
care, or have their deliveries supervised by a trained birth attendant.
c. percentage of the population using the various
methods of family planning.
d. bed-occupancy rate-
average daily in-patient census/average number of beds
e. average length of stay ( days of care rendered/
discharges), and
f. bed turnover ratio (i.e., discharges/average beds).
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Social & mental health indicators- These include social crime rate such as suicide,
homicide, other acts of violence and other crime; road traffic accidents,
juvenile delinquency; alcohol and drug abuse; smoking; consumption of
tranquillizers; obesity, etc. To these may be added family violence,
battered baby and battered-wife syndromes and neglected and abandoned youth in
the neighborhood. These social indicators provide a guide to social action for
improving the health of the people.
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Environmental indicators - They include indicators relating to pollution of
air and water, radiation, solid wastes, noise, exposure to toxic substances in
food or drink. Among these, the most useful indicators are those measuring the
proportion of population having access to safe water and sanitation facilities,
such as percentage of households with safe water in the home or within 15
minutes' walking distance from a water standpoint or protected well; adequate sanitary facilities in the home or immediate
vicinity
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