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Measuring health status
Key knowledge: 1.1
- different measures of health status of Australians, including the meaning of
burden of disease, health adjusted life years and DALY’s, life expectancy, underfive mortality rate, mortality, morbidity, incidence, prevalence
Key skills:
- define key health terms
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HEALTH

How do you know when people are healthy?

How do you know when a country or population are healthy?

How would you compare Australia to other countries?
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HEALTH STATUS

An individual’s or population’s overall level of health,
taking into account various factors such a life expectancy,
amount of disability, and levels of disease risk factors.
(VCAA definition)

Health status is different to health.


HEALTH=PMS

HEALTH STATUS= Health Indicators
To measure an individuals or populations level of health
we need to:

Use statistics to be able to make judgements

Need to know and understand the health indictors
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Why measure health status?

Make judgements about the individual/population/groups
etc

Use information to improve health in the area that needs
action

Can identify trends which provides feedback on health
programs that have already been implemented.
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How do we measure health status
These terms are all 'Health Indicators'.
Life
expectancy
Burden of
Disease
•DALY
(YLL and YLD)
Mortality
•Years of life
lost
HEALTH
STATUS
Incidence and
Prevalence
•New Cases
and
Total Cases
Morbidity
•Years lived with
disability
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Life Expectancy

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 - (VCAA
definition)
 Usually
calculated from birth
 Eg. Life
Expectancy ‘At Birth’ – estimates the
average number of years a newborn can expect to
life if existing mortality patterns continue
 A baby born in Australia today would expect
(approx.) to live more than 80 years of age.
 Life
expectancy can be calculated at other ages (30,
65, 80)
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Life Expectancy
Describe the changes in life expectancy for
males and for females between 1901 and 2005.
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
Can you see a trend??
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Health Adjusted Life Years (HALE)

A measure of burden of disease based on life expectancy at
birth, but including an adjustment for time spent in poor health.
It is the number of years in full health that a person can expect
to life, based on current rates of ill health and mortality- (VCAA
definition)

An estimate of the number of health years (free from disability
or disease) that a person born in a particular year can expect
to live, based on current trends in death and disease patterns.

EQUATION:
HALE = LE – number of years living in unhealthy
states
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Morbidity

Refers to ill health in an individual and the levels of ill health
in a population or group- (VCAA definition)

Also can be referred in measurements of:

Incidence = the number or proportion of new cases of a
particular disease or condition present in a population at a given
time.

Prevalence = the number or proportion of cases of a particular
disease or condition present in a population at a given time.
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Age-specific prevalence of coronary heart
disease, Australia, 2004-05
number of cases
of Coronary heart
disease in a given
time
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Number of
cases of
cancer in young
people aged 1214 years between
1993-2002
Cancer incidence in young people aged 12-24 years, 1993-2002:
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Mortality

Mortality – Refers to deaths in a population.

Mortality rate- refers to how many deaths occurred in a
population in a given period of time for a specific cases/all
causes- (VCAA Definition)


Rates are usually presented per 100 000 population in a 12 month
period.
Mortality data can include:



Infant Mortality Rate – refers to the risk of an infant dying between
birth and one year of age in a given year per 1000 live births
Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) – refers to the number of deaths
children under five years of age per 1000 live births
Maternal Mortality Ratio – refers to the number of women dying
from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births
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 Identify
the
similarities and
differences between
causes of deaths for
males and the causes
of deaths for females.
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What is the trend for the U5MR rate in Australia between
1976 and 2008? What might be some reasons for this trend??
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Burden of disease

A measure of the impact of diseases and injuries, specifically
it measures the gap between current health status and an
ideal situation where everyone lives to an old age free of
disease and disability. Burden of disease is measured in a
unit called the DALY- (VCAA definition)

Combines mortality and morbidity

E.g enables us to measure impact of cancer (that causes
mortality) and asthma (which causes morbidity)
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Measurement of Burden of Disease
DALY= A measurement of burden of disease, one DALY equals one year of
healthy life lost due to premature death and time lived with illness or
disease- (VCAA definition)
1 DALY is one year of ‘healthy life’ lost due to a disease or injury
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Burden of Disease

Which diseases
were the two leading
causes of burden of
disease in Australia
in 2003?

For these two
diseases were there
more DALYs due to
death or more
DALYs due to
disability?

Identify the number
of DALYs for each of
the fatal component
(YLL) and the nonfatal component
(YLD) for injuries.
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 Years
of life lost to premature mortality/death;
Dying before it was predicted that you would.
 What
can be concluded from the data below in
regard to males a females?
Total
Number
of years
lost in
1996
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Years lost due to disability
YLD

What are the
top 3 YLD for
major disease
groups in
1996?

How many
YLD occurred
in 1996 for
these
diseases?
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BUT......
EVERY TIME WE ARE SICK OR WE DIE WE GET
FURTHER AWAY FROM BEING FREE FROM DISEASE
WE WANT TO BE
HERE
The bigger the gap,
the more DALYS
(YLD + YLL)
AND ILLNESS AND THE GAP GETS BIGGER AND
BIGGER....
IMPACT
IMPACT
CVD
IMPACT
IMPACT
Cancer
Asthma
back pain
Gap starts to grow
Optimal Health
- Old age and free
of disease/illness
and grow
and grow
and grow......
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Disability Adjusted Life Years


YLL=one YLL equals one year of life lost due to premature
death (fatal).
YLD= one YLD equals one year of life lost to illness or injury
(non fatal).

Various conditions have a different impact/burden on health
status. The way this is calculated is measured through a complex
formula as all conditions vary in severity.

E.g arthritis may have a greater impact on someone's life
compared to mild asthma.
ACTIVITIES
- Practice exam questions in booklet
- Read pages 10-28
- Answer questions:
Page 12: 3
Page 17: 2,3,4,5, 6,7
Page 22: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13
Page 28: 4, 5, 6
- Learn all key terms and be able to define them by
the first week back in 2014
-eLesson and study on activities
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Answer
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Practice Exam Questions
Define life expectancy
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2 marks
(VCAA HHD exam 2009)
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Answer
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Practice Exam Questions
Briefly outline two indicators that are used to measure the health
status of populations.
1.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2.
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____________________________________________________________
4 marks
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Answer
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Practice Exam Questions
Jeanette has been diagnosed with the early symptoms of Diabetes
Mellitus Type II. She lives in the City of Moonee Valley and has
been asked by the health promotion Council to be involved in the
‘Life’ program. Diabetes Australia Vic. Has been ranked the City of
Moonee Valley 57th in Victoria for the number of cases of Diabetes
Mellitus. Although not considered a ‘hot spot’ it has had an
increase of 94% in the prevalence of Diabetes in its population.
Define prevalence.
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
1 mark
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Answer