Health Indicators Related to Disease, Death, and Reproduction

• Published in: Journal of preventive medicine and public health Vol. 52; no. 1; pp. 14 - 20
• Main Authors: Choi, Jeoungbin, Ki, Moran, Kwon, Ho Jang, Park, Boyoung, Bae, Sanghyuk, Oh, Chang-Mo, Chun, Byung Chul, Oh, Gyung-Jae, Lee, Young Hoon, Lee, Tae-Yong, Cheong, Hae Kwan, Choi, Bo Youl, Park, Jung Han, Park, Sue K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) Korean Society for Preventive Medicine 01.01.2019; 대한예방의학회
• Subjects: Concept; Epidemiology; Health indicators; Methods; Terminology; 예방의학; Concept; Terminology; Epidemiology; Health indicators
• ISSN: 1975-8375; 2233-4521
• DOI: 10.3961/jpmph.18.250

One of the primary goals of epidemiology is to quantify various aspects of a population's health, illness, and death status and the determinants (or risk factors) thereof by calculating health indicators that measure the magnitudes of various conditions. There has been some confusion regarding health indicators, with discrepancies in usage among organizations such as the World Health Organization the, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the CDC of other countries, and the usage of the relevant terminology may vary across papers. Therefore, in this review, we would like to propose appropriate terminological definitions for health indicators based on the most commonly used meanings and/or the terms used by official agencies, in order to bring clarity to this area of confusion. We have used appropriate examples to make each health indicator easy for the reader to understand. We have included practical exercises for some health indicators to help readers understand the underlying concepts.