Transcript Slide 1

Different measures of health status
of Australians
• burden of disease
• health adjusted life expectancy
• DALYs
• life expectancy
• under-five mortality rate
• mortality
• morbidity
• incidence and prevalence
Sources of data in Australia
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW)
• Department of Human Services (DHS), Victoria
Life expectancy
• Average number of years of life remaining to a
person at any specified age
• Based on current mortality patterns in the
population
• Life expectancy at birth = average number of
years a newborn can expect to live if existing
mortality patterns continue over the
individual’s lifetime
Health adjusted life expectancy
(HALE)
There is an increasing life expectancy in
Australia. Are people spending their extra
years of live in good or poor health?
Not only are increases in life expectancy
important, what also matters is that people
live longer lives in better health
Health adjusted life expectancy
(HALE)
Estimate of the number of healthy years that a
person born in a particular year can expect to
live, based on current death and illness trends
HALE = Life expectancy – unhealthy years
Mortality (death)
• Data on mortality and its causes are vital
measures of a country's health status
Measures of mortality
• Infant mortality: 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): number of
deaths in a given population of under-5 children
during a specified time period
(per 1000 live births)
• Maternal mortality rate: number of women
dying from pregnancy related causes
(per 100 000 live births)
Morbidity (ill health)
• Levels of disease, illness, disability and injury
in an individual or population
Incidence and prevalence
• Incidence: the number of new cases of an
illness or event during a given period
• Prevalence: the number or proportion of
cases or incidents in a population at a given
time
Burden of disease
• The impact of a particular disease or condition
in relation to the amount of healthy life lost
due to premature death, illness or disability
• Provides information about health conditions
with the biggest impact on Australians and
where the most gains can be made, so that
health resources can be allocated effectively
Disability adjusted life years (DALYs)
• A unit of measure developed to compare the
impact of different diseases and injuries on an
equal basis
• One DALY = one healthy year of life lost due to
illness or injury
DALY
• DALY = YLL + YLD
• Disability adjusted life year = years of life lost +
years of life living with a disability