Indicators of health

The Indicators of Health furnish a quantum for the health status of a Individual, Group, community or a Country and to correlate it with other similar parameters which help us to understand the good and the poorly assessed areas and to allocate more resources to the ill health and also to monitor and re-evaluate whether the ill are progressing towards a healthy status and to understand what all measures need to be done. In other words we understand the objectives and targets of a single programme being implemented towards the attainment of best health goals.

Indicators are defined as Variables by the World Health Organisation which have a Negative range and a inescapable range in probable observations. This gives an idea about how the enlarge of a single programme will go and when these indicators are measured periodically and sequentially over time, they can indicate direction and speed of turn and can help to correlate the health indications of distinct groups of people, communities or countries.

Health

Characteristics of Indicators :

The Indicators which should be used in an evaluation, should have the following characteristics so that it can be used in a campaign or a survey.

1. An Indicator should be valid  and should be able to do the purpose of what it is intended to do

2. An Indicator should be dependable and Objective. This means that when distinct people carry out investigate on a similar experiment they should, more or less arrive at a similar inference using the same indicators.

3. An Indicator should be Sensitive and should acknowledge in difference to the situation concerned.

4. An Indicator should be specific and should acknowledge only to the difference of the specific situation in concern.

5. An Indicator should be feasible as it should have the functions attached to it which enable data variety involved to it.

6. An Indicator should be relevant which means that it should be able to aid in understanding the understanding in concern. It should whether withhold the Hypothesis or discard the Hypothesis in concern.

Health is a Multi-Dimensional entity and each entity is a complex phenomenon in itself because the each entity is affected by numerous factors of which Some are Known while many are still Unknown.

Thus Health is subjected to  the following Factors :

01. Mortality Indicators

02. Morbidity Indicators

03. Disability Rates

04. Nutritional Status Indicators

05. Health Care Delivery Indicators

06. Utilization Rates

07. Indicators of group and Metal Health

08. Environmental Indicators

09, Socio-Economic Indicators

10. Health procedure Indicators

11. Indicators of ability of Life

12. Other Indicators

Mortality Indicators and Morbidity Indicators

A. Mortality Indicators

The indicators indicating mortality in a community are :

1. Crude Death Rate

2. Hope of life

3. Infant Mortality Rate

4. Child Moratality Rate

5. Under-5 Proportional Mortality Rate

6. Maternal (Puerperal) Mortality Rate

7. Disease specific Mortality

8. Proportional Mortality Rate

1. Crude Death Rate:

It is defined as the estimate of deaths per 1000 people per year in a given community. Here a decrease in death rate indicates best health conditions in the community indicating an broad increase in the health status of the given population, which is in fact a goal of medicine.

2. Hope of Life:

Life expectancy means the estimate of years a human being may live, if the age specific and sex specific mortality rates of a people are known. Life expectancy is calculated at birth, at the age of 1 which excludes Infant mortality and at the age of 5 which excludes child mortality. Here also, an increase in average life expectancy is thought about as an improvement in health status.

3. Infant mortality rate:

It is defined as the ratio of estimate of deaths under 1 year of age to the total estimate of live births in the same year, regularly expressed as a rate per 1000 live births. This quantum is able to infer upon the health status of the infants, also deductively of the whole people and the socio-economic conditions under which the infants and also the whole people lives.

4. Child mortality rate:

It is defined as the ratio of estimate of deaths of children 1 to 4 years of age per 1000 children in the respective age group at the mid-point of the year involved for a single area or community. This ratio indicates the broad health status of the early childhood in a given community and excludes Infant mortality.

5. Under 5 proportionate mortality rate:

When both Infant mortality and early childhood mortality need to be considered, then these statistics are used where total estimate of deaths of children under age 5 per 1000 people is considered. This statistical data helps in inferencing upon high birth rates, high child mortality rates and shorter life expectancy.

6. Maternal (puerperal) mortality rate:

The levels of maternal mortality differ from country to country agreeing to its socio-economic conditions and status representing the proportion of deaths of women in reproductive age which is commonly higher in the under industrialized and developing countries. This data has not gained much importance in terms of statistical analysis and inference.

7. Disease-specific mortality:

This statistical analysis can be computed for mortality on list of specific diseases. As communicable diseases are being extricated, other diseases like Cancers, Cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes have emerged as specific disease problems.

8. Proportional  mortality rate:

This statistical analysis takes in list the proportion of all deaths from every abouve mentioned analysis attributed to it.

B. Morbidity Indicators

These indicators indicate the burden of diseases and illhealth in a community but have there own limitations as they recite only the clinical cases and are represented as iceberg theory.

The assessing points for illhealth and diseases in a community are :

1. Incidence and Prevalence

2. Announcement rates

3. Attendance rates at health services

4. Admission, Re-admission and removal rates

5. Duration of stay in hospital

6. Spells of sickness or absence from work or school.

C. Disability Rates

These fall into two categories which are namely :

a. Event type indicators:

i. estimate od days of restricted activity

ii. Bed disability days

iii. Work loss days

b.  Person type indicators:

i. Limitation of mobility

ii. Limitation of activity

D. Nutritional Status Indicators

These are namely :

Measurements and proportions of pre-school children. Heights and sometimes weights of school level children The frequency measurement of babies being born under kind of low birth weight. In India, Low birth weight is thought about when the weight of the new born child is under 2.5 kgs.
E. Health Care Delivery Indicators

This indicator shows us the units of health law gift in a given corporeal and geographical area which are imparting health services the data of which is grouped under the following categories:

Doctor-population ratio Doctor-nurse ratio Population-bed ratio Population per health/subcentre Population per original birth attendant
F. Utilization Rates

These measures are used to quantum the usage of the health services and is measured under the following categories:

Proportion of infants who have received unblemished immunization programme. Proportion of pregnant women who have received unblemished ante-natal care Percentage of people using or adapted to varied procedures under family planning Hospital bed occupancy rate Average length of stay of a sick person at Hospital The Utilization Rates can differ agreeing to every Geographical area, the climate and the habitat and surrounding environment. The list can also be inclusive of more criteria on the basis of factors complex in the manufacture of the area.

G. group Health, reasoning Health, Environmental and Socio-economic Indicators of Health

Positive health is a rarity, now-a-days. Thus, many a times symptoms and clinical presentations linked to group and reasoning analysis are needed to be used. These indicators indicate the socialism in the given area or community.

We also know that every living entity needs a good environment within suitable limits so that the living entity remains healthy. The same aoolies to Human beings. The factors which influence the group ad reasoning Health are:

Pollution Radiation Solid wastes Access to safe water etc. Socio-economic indicators do not directly quantum Health but help in interpretation of the indicators of health 

H. Health procedure Indicators

This makes them the most foremost data rearrangement of sympoms in a gift society.

I. Other Indicators may comprise :

Indicators for ability of Life Basic needs indicators Health for All Indicators

Indicators of health