Overall Health Status
Summary measures of health status are statistics that use mortality data, or combine mortality and
morbidity data to represent overall population health in a single number.1
Examples of summary measures include general health status and healthy days measures from the
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys, life expectancy, and years of potential
life lost (YPLL). Measures that combine mortality and morbidity include health-adjusted life years
(HALYs) or health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE), quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), years of
healthy life (YHLs), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).
1. Molla MT, Wagener DK, Madans JH. Summary measures of population health:
Methods for calculating healthy life expectancy. Healthy People Statistical Notes, no. 21.
Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. August 2001. Downloaded from
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/statnt/statnt21.pdf on 2/10/2015.
Bergner and Rothman2 have suggested
that health status assessment measures serve four different functions, including examination of the
health of general populations, clinical interventions and their effects, changes in the health care
delivery system, and health promotion activities and their effects.
2. Bergner, M, and Rothman, ML.
Health Status Measures: An Overview and Guide for Selection. Annual Review of Public Health
8:191-210, 1987.
As cited in Marilyn J. Field and Marthe R. Gold (Eds.) Summarizing Population Health: Directions
for the Development and Application of Population Metrics, Committee on Summary Measures of
Population Health. Institute of Medicine. Washington D.C., National Academy Press. 1998.
Downloaded from
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6124 on 2/10/2015.
General Health Status - Adults (BRFSS)
Physical Health - Adults (BRFSS)
Activity Limitation - Adults (BRFSS)
Disability - Adults (BRFSS)
- Have a Disability, Old Definition - Crude Rates
- Have a Disability, Old Definition - Age-adjusted Rates
- Have a Disability, New Definition - Crude Rates
- Have a Disability, New Definition - Age-adjusted Rates
- Cognitive Disability - Crude Rates
- Cognitive Disability - Age-adjusted Rates
- Mobility Disability - Crude Rates
- Mobility Disability - Age-adjusted Rates
- Self Care Disability - Crude Rates
- Self Care Disability - Age-adjusted Rates
- Independent Living Disability - Crude Rates
- Independent Living Disability - Age-adjusted Rates
- Vision Disability - Crude Rates
- Vision Disability - Age-adjusted Rates
- Deaf/Hearing Disability - Crude Rates
- Deaf/Hearing Disability - Age-adjusted Rates