Indicators of health

Today is our topic of discussion Indicators of health

Indicators of health

Definition:

Health indicators are the tools with which we can measure the health status of a country. The important health indicators are –

Mortality indicators :

1. Infant mortality rate
2. Under-five mortality rate
3. Maternal mortality rate
4.  Crude death rate

Morbidity indicators:

1. Incidence and prevalence rates
2. Notification rates aboloia
3. Absence from work or school

Nutritional status indicators:

1. Prevalence of LBW (less than 2.5 Kg)
2. Weight and height measurements and their comparison with national standard

Disability rates:

1. Number of days of reduced activity
2. Number of days in bed
3. Number of work days lost

Health facility indicators:

1. Doctor-population ratio 
2. Doctor-nurse ratio
3. Health worker-population ratio
4. Population-hospital bed ratio

Health service utilization indicators:

1. Proportion of pregnant women receiving antenatal care by trained birth attendant
2. Proportion of pregnant women being delivered by trained birth attendant
3. Proportion of pregnant women being delivered in a health service institution 
4. Proportion of infants immunized against EPI diseases

Environmental health indicators:

1. Proportion of population having access to safe water supply at home or within 15 minutes walking distance

2. Proportion of population having access to safe sanitation facilities at home or in the immediate vicinity of the community

Social and mental health indicators:

1. Road traffic accidentsil 
2. Drug and alcohol abuse
3. Suicide
4. Homicide
5. Morbidity and mortality due to mental diseases

Socio-economic indicators:

1. Population growth rate
2. Unemployment rate
3. Dependency ratio
4. Literacy rate

Other indicators:

1. Social security and welfare services 
2. Leisure and recreation

Responsibility of health:

It involves participation at individual, community, state & international level.

Positive health:

It means ‘the state of perfect functioning of the body and mind’.

Spectrum of health:

Health and disease lie along a continuum without any strict demarcation. The lowest point on the health-disease spectrum is the ‘death’ and highest point corresponds to the WHO definition of health. Components of such a spectrum is –

Fig: The health Sickness Spectrum

Criteria of good physical health:

1. A good complexion
2. A clean skin
3. Bright eyes
4. Lustrous hair with a body well clothed with firm flesh
5. Not too fat
6. A sweet breath 
7. A good appetite
8. Sound sleep
9. Regular activity of bowels and bladder 
10. Smooth, easy and coordinated bodily movements
11. All the organs of the body are of unexceptional size and function normally
12. All the special senses are intact 
13. The resting pulse rate, blood pressure and exercise tolerance are all within the range of normality of for the individual’s age and sex

14. In the young and growing individual there is a steady gain weight and in future the weight remains more or less constant at a point of about 2.3 Kg more or less than the individual’s weight at the age of 25 years.

See also :

• Cardiologists in Bangladesh