MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY: CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES AND IMPORTANCE - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The morbidity is a term that encompasses the definitions of "disease" and "mortality". Therefore, to understand this concept it is necessary to define the other two.

Both morbidity and mortality are statistical indices concerning health. The first refers to the percentage of the population that becomes ill in a given period, while the second refers to the percentage of the population that dies in a given period.

Morbidity and mortality combines these two elements and can be defined as the rate of individuals who die in a given time due to having contracted a certain disease.

The data provided may be generic if only the number of individuals who died due to diseases is indicated. On the other hand, one can speak of specific morbidity and mortality if indices are offered for each of the pathologies that cause death.

For example, you can have morbidity and mortality from malaria, AIDS, hepatitis, among other medical conditions.

Similarities and differences between morbidity and mortality

Morbidity and mortality are two terms used in statistics and in demography to refer to the health situation of the population. Although they are similar, the terms are not synonymous.

Morbidity is defined as the state of illness or lack of health that a person suffers. To establish the morbidity index, different aspects are taken into account, among which the type of pathology suffered, the age of the affected population, the gender and the area in which the individual living with the condition stands out.

The concept of morbidity includes not only active diseases, but also chronic defects, whether inherited (such as hemophilia) or the result of trauma suffered at some stage of development.

On the other hand, mortality is the index that collects information on the number of individuals who die in an area and a certain period of time.

The mortality rate can be of different types, taking into account the characteristics of the deceased population. One can speak of infant mortality (in the case of children), maternal mortality (in the case of mothers), standard mortality (if the differentiating characteristics are not taken into account), morbidity and mortality (which is the death rate due to diseases), among others.

Morbidity and mortality

A nation's statistical institutes keep track of mortality and morbidity rates. Because many diseases cause the death of part of the population, an index has been created to measure the interaction between morbidity and mortality.

This is known as morbidity and mortality. It is an index that measures the percentage of the population that has died in an area and in a given period of time from diseases.

Types of morbidity and mortality

In general terms, the morbidity and mortality rate can be of two types: general and specific.

General, generic or gross morbidity and mortality

We speak of general, generic or gross morbidity and mortality when the data provided only refers to the number of individuals who have died from diseases in a given period, without classifying them by age, sex or pathology suffered.

Specific morbidity and mortality

Specific morbidity and mortality offers categorized data. In this case, the statistics are organized by age, by sex, by area and by pathology suffered.

Pathological morbidity and mortality

Regarding the pathology suffered, each region of the planet is affected by particular diseases that may not occur in other areas. It is common to see that different countries collect different data regarding pathological morbidity and mortality.

For example, in many European states (such as France, Spain and Italy), the main pathologies causing deaths are cardiovascular diseases. P

For its part, in African countries, the pathologies that cause the most deaths are malaria, hepatitis B, diseases contracted by drinking contaminated water (such as diarrhea) and sexually transmitted diseases, such as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. (AIDS).

Morbidity and mortality by age

Regarding age, it is usually classified into the following periods:

Morbidity and mortality in the elderly, from 55 years onwards. It should be noted that the age to consider an individual as "old" may vary from one country to another.

Adult morbidity and mortality, from 20 to 55 years of age.

Pediatric morbidity and mortality, which is subdivided into:

1. Perinatal, which goes from the 28th week of gestation to the first week after birth to 28 days of birth.
2. Neonatal, which goes from the first month to 11 months of age.
3. Older infant, from 12 months to 23 months.
4. Preschool, from 2 to 6 years old.
5. Middle childhood, from 6 to 12 years old.
6. Prepubertal or preadolescent, from 10 or 12 years old to 14 years old.
7. Pubertal or adolescent, from 14 to 18 or 20 years of age.

Other aspects to consider in morbidity and mortality

Some morbidity and mortality statistics also include the social and economic stratum to which a person belongs. This is because certain pathologies are directly related to the level of poverty of individuals. For example, in Asia, diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death among poor infants.

Importance of morbidity and mortality

The data provided by the morbidity and mortality index are important, since they allow a region to be aware of the pathologies that affect the population.

In this way, medical strategies can be developed to more efficiently treat certain conditions. Thus, future deaths caused by specific diseases could be prevented.

Let's take the following example: the morbidity and mortality rate in zone X shows that obesity is one of the main causes of death among members of its population.

Then, the government, together with the health entities of the region, can create awareness campaigns that aim to improve the eating habits of the inhabitants, in order to reduce the number of deaths due to obesity.

References

1. Morbidity and mortality. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from wikipedia.org
2. Morbimortality. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from wiktionary.org
3. Morbimortality in adult patients with septic arthrithis. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
4. Morbimortality in Older Patients Undergoing Urgent Abdominal Surgery. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from clinicaltrials.gov
5. Morbidity index. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
6. Morbidity index. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from sciencedirect.com
7. THL's Morbidity Index. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from slideshare.net