Essentials of Biostatistics. 7. Measures of morbidity and mortality in children

The previous article(1) of this series was devoted to the interpretation of individual based measurements and their reference values. However, the term health is used as much for a group or a community as for individuals. A different set of instruments is required to measure health of a group of people. Such a measure helps to compare the state of health over a period of time in the same community, among people of different social and ethnic groups, among people residing in different areas, and among people of different biological groups such as of different age, different gender or different race. Such measures are called indicators. This term is generally used when the measure is restricted to a specific aspect. There are several indicators of mortality and morbidity that measure children's health. Section 7.1 is on indicators of mortality and Section 7.2 includes measures of morbidity such as incidence and prevalence