INDICATORS OF HEALTH- ENGLISH
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Health
indicators
Health indicators are quantifiable characteristics of a population which
researchers use as supporting evidence for describing the health of a
population. Typically, researchers will use a survey methodology to gather
information about certain people, use statistics in an attempt to
generalize the information collected to the entire population, and then use the
statistical analysis to make a statement about the health of the population.
Health indicators are often used by
governments to guide health care policy. Health indicators are not only
used to measure the health status of community but also to compare the health
status of one area to another. These indicators
are also used for the assessment of health needs of a community or
country.
Main Health indicators are –
•
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.
•
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
•
Disability rates - The commonly used disability rates fall into two groups:
(a) Event-type indicators and (b) person-type
indicators
(a) Event-type indicators
i) Number of days of restricted activity
ii) Bed disability days
iii) Work-loss days (or school-loss days) within a
specified period
(b) Person-type indicators
i) Limitation of mobility: For example,
confined to bed, confined to the house, special aid in getting around either
inside or outside the house.
ii) Limitation of activity: For example,
limitation to perform the basic activities of daily living (ADL) eating,
washing, dressing, going to toilet, moving about & limitation in major
activity, ability to work at a job, ability to housework, etc.
•
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).
•
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.
•
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).
•
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 neighbourhood. These social indicators provide a guide to social action for
improving the health of the people.
•
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
•
Socio‐economic indicators - These include:
a. Rate of population increase
b. Per capita GNP
c. Level of unemployment
d. Dependency ratio
e. Literacy rates, especially female literacy rates
f. Family size
g. Housing: the number of persons per room, and
h. Per capita "calorie"
availability.
•
Healthy policy indicators - The Health Policy
indicators are:
(i) proportion of GNP spent on health services
(ii) proportion of GNP spent on healthrelated
activities (including water supply and sanitation, housing and nutrition,
community development), and
(iii) proportion of total health resources devoted to
primary health care.
•
Quality of life indicators. - Quality of life is difficult to define and even
more difficult to measure . The physical quality of life index is one such
index It consolidates three indicators,
viz.
infant mortality rate,
life expectancy at age one, and
Literacy rate.
•
Other indicators.- Other health indicators include
(a) Social indicators : Social indicators, as
defined by the United Nations Statistical Office, have been divided into 12
categories:- population; family formation, families and households; learning
and educational services; earning activities; distribution of income,
consumption, and accumulation; social security and welfare services; health
services and nutrition; housing and its environment; public order and safety;
time use; leisure and culture; social stratification and mobility
(b) Basic needs indicators : Basic needs
indicators are used by ILO. Those mentioned in "Basic needs
performance" include calorie
consumption; access to water; life expectancy; deaths due to disease;
illiteracy, doctors and nurses per population; rooms per person; GNP per
capita.
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