Morbidity and Mortality

Morbidity is the condition of being ill or unhealthy. It may include acute illnesses (which have a sudden onset and improve or worsen in a short period) and chronic illnesses (which can present and progress slowly over a long time). Mortality is the condition of being dead. We usually hear mortality in terms of the number of deaths in a population over time, either in general or due to a specific cause. It is essential to identify that morbidity may or may not lead to mortality.  The terms morbidity and mortality are partially related but not identical.

What is Morbidity?

Morbidity refers to the condition of being diseased or having disease, or to the amount of disease within a population. Morbidity also applies to the medical problems caused by treatment. The morbidity rate studies how many people got a particular disease in a specific community, at a specific geographical location during a particular period. Morbidity measures the risk that a person will love with a debilitating condition that can impact their ability to function independently. A person can survive for several years with one or more morbidities, and one morbidity may lead to another morbidity.

What is the Meaning of Mortality?

Mortality is the term used to calculate the number of people who died within a population? It refers to the incidence of death. It is expressed as the number of deaths per 100 people per year. It is measured with the help of systems such as SAPA II and III, APACHE-II, Glasgow, Coma scale, etc. Like we mentioned above, it is necessary to identify that morbidities may or may not lead to mortality, that is one could have terminal lung cancer but die of injuries after a road accident.

As mentioned above morbidity and mortality are not identical so read on to explore the difference between morbidity and mortality:

Difference between Morbidity and Mortality?

Morbidity and Mortality Statistics

Morbidity and mortality statistics on solvent abuse – a retrospective study of newspaper reports on solvent abuse shows that many individuals had been hospitalized or had died. A subsequent survey of hospital records demonstrated that only a tiny proportion of both hospital casualties and inpatients were found to have been involved in solvent abuse. No morbidity appeared to have resulted from the practice in Lanarkshire. Summing up, 45 deaths from solvent abuse occurred in Britain between 1970 and January 1977.

Some morbidities are cancer, heart disease, stroke, influenza, suicide whereas some instances of mortalities would be infant mortality rate, crude mortality, maternal mortality and so forth.

Viral Hepatitis: A descriptive epidemiology based on morbidity and mortality statistics – viral hepatitis has recently gained increasing recognition as one of the most important infectious disease problems in the United States. Two separate entities are included under this term, one is infectious hepatitis which has caused widespread outbreaks in this country from time to time during the past century 51 or longer and the second one is serum hepatitis which is excellent in resembling infectious hepatitis clinically.

Solved Examples

Question:What are the Top Leading Causes of Morbidity?

Answer: 

1.   Acute Respiratory infection

2.   Acute lower respiratory tract infection

3.   Bronchitis

4.   Hypertension

5.   Influenza

6.   TB respiratory

Did You Know

1. Nearly 1% of the world's population is newly infected with tuberculosis each year.

2. Tuberculosis kills approximately 2 million people each year.

3. HIV and tuberculosis is a lethal combination, each speeding the other's progress.

4. Malaria takes the life of an African child every 30 seconds.

5. Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses.

6. 20% of the global population is at risk of contracting malaria.

Conclusion

Learning about Morbidity and Mortality will allow students and young adults to be prepared for health inconveniences and seek medication accordingly.