Health Indicators

Health Indicators
Health indicators are measurements that are a representation of the health status of a given population at a given point in time. For the longest time, mortality rates have been used to represent the health status of a society. However, with time and advancement in technology, other non-biological factors such as access and quality of care and standards of living have been found to portray a more accurate and holistic picture of a community’s health.
Indicators can be basic counts such as new cases of tuberculosis or cancer in a given area or sophisticated proportions such as neonatal mortality rates. For indicators to be meaningful, first, they have to be created from data collected using reliable methods that are unbiased and available on a regular basis. They must communicate or represent a broad audience in the population. Indicators should also have proxy power, meaning that they say something relevant about health, drawing other indicators along which may be challenging to collect.
Use of health indicators.
The main purpose of health indicators is to influence decision making for the purpose of improving public health. Some of the major purposes include:
• Advocacy: Health indicators remain one of the best ways of influencing changes to improve public health. Politicians have, on many occasions, used health indicators to support or reject certain political governments. This can influence different political decisions aimed at improving access and quality of health care to the citizens.
• Monitoring and evaluation: Monitoring changes in the indicators can help establish the impacts of any health policies and programs. They communicate vital information regarding the health of the population, which can then be used to plan and put necessary measures forward for a healthier community.
• Accountability: Periodically evaluating and reporting on population health can help the government, health professionals, and other health agencies identify trends, patterns, and risks, which are a reflection on the performance. This can also help identify areas that need improvement.
• Research and explanation: Observations made from the health indicators be it changes in trends, patterns among various population groups can be analyzed to establish emerging issues and develop possible interventions. These indicators can also be used to gain insight into why some individuals are healthy while others are not. This can be achieved by analyzing the indicators and their relation to social factors such as ethnicity, income levels, and societal norms.
There are so many factors that determine the type of indicators to be used. But the most common indicators available are measures related to birth or deaths. This includes life expectancy, premature mortality rates, age-specific deaths, teen births, among others. These indicators, however, must be based on conceptual factors that influence health. For instance, an increase in mortality rates in a particular area due to infectious diseases or chronic illnesses.