Suchergebnisse

SummaryThis study is based on the 1983 Rural Health Survey of Ethiopia. Patterns and levels of child morbidity by age, sex, geographic region, and sanitary facilities are examined. Morbidity levels peak in the second year of life. Diarrhoeal diseases are of major importance, especially among infants and toddlers. Parasitic diseases, and respiratory diseases other than pneumonia, become increasingly important with age.There are no significant sex differentials in morbidity except for higher rates of diarrhoeal diseases among female children. Geographic differentials are quite marked with particularly high morbidity levels from all disease types in the western mountainous regions of Ethiopia. Access to high quality drinking water, a latrine, and garbage disposal, are strongly related to reduced overall morbidity levels, though not necessarily to reduced diarrhoeal disease levels.

STUDY OBJECTIVE--Resource allocations from the central government to the English health regions are determined by population levels adjusted by relative standardised mortality ratios (SMRs). The White Paper Working for Patients proposes that allocations should in future be based on capitation adjusted by some other measures of health. The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of using morbidity data in the weighting algorithm instead of relative SMRs. DESIGN--Morbidity data were obtained from the Health and Lifestyle Survey, 1986. Three different measures of self reported morbidity were used (Long Standing Illness, Any Declared Condition, Any Handicap). Population weightings were calculated by national average bed use for these conditions and again for SMRs. SETTING--This was a national survey using data from all the English health regions. MAIN RESULTS--All three measures of morbidity showed a wider variation between regions than SMRs, and the weighted populations showed a correspondingly wide variation (approximately double that obtained when using SMRs). CONCLUSION--The weighting of populations will be crucial in determining resource allocations to budget holders, whether in the hospital or primary care sector. However without a prior agreement on what counts as "need", the choice of these alternative measures will be arbitrary.

The study of morbidity from the point of view of demographic
analysis refers to the incidence and prevalence of sickness in the
population during a certain reference period. Morbidity being the state
of condition from which people may return to normal health or, subject
to the seriousness of illness, may in some cases die. Though from the
point of view of medical discipline any deviation from normal health
i.e. a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, is of
direct concern for research. The morbidity statistics for which data
have become available for a national level statistical or demographic
analysis, refers to inability to perform the usual daily routine,
inability to take normal food and requiring bed rest for a specific
period of time.

In essays about the theory of epidemiologic transition, Abdel Omran has argued that demographic change in the last century occurred in stages that can be characterized by their leading causes of death. The transition consists of a change in leading causes from infectious to degenerative and man-made diseases. In that version of the theory, the death rate is held to approximate the sickness rate.
This essay identifies an epidemiologic transition in morbidity, using insurance records and health surveys to assess the morbidity trend. Two morbidity rates -incidence and prevalence- are distinguished. Each describes a trend independent from the mortality trend. While the risk of death declined sharply after 1870 in Britain, the age-specific incidence of disease and injury remained approximately level and the age-specific of duration increased. These independent trends are explained in part by ways the mortality decline affected the composition of the population. And they in turn affect interprétation of the mortality decline and the epidemiologic transition by suggesting that a key change occurred in the outeome of maladies. Sicknesses were more prolonged, but more people recovered.

In the present phase of epidemiological transition, the most frequent causes of youth morbidity are disorders in reproductive health, mental disorders and injuries which are not life threatening. This, so-called new youth morbidity, is most often caused by their risky behavior, which in the field of sexuality often leads to unplanned pregnancies and abortions, as well as sexually transmitted infections. Misuse of tobacco, alcohol and narcotics, which is most commonly started in adolescence, has an unfavorable short-term and long-term influence on the psycho-physical health of the young. All research, in the world and in our country, indicate gradual yet constant growth of sexual activity of the youth and the age decrease of its starting point, especially when girls are in question. Due to insufficient maturity and inadequate knowledge and consciousness on the necessity of protecting reproductive health, sexual behavior of young people can often be characterized as insufficiently responsible and not supplemented with the usage of adequate protective measures. The result is frequently abortion, which terminates 90% of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies in this age. This creates health and psychosocial risks, as well as giving birth in adolescence which is contrary to the modern health concepts that giving birth should not be performed too early, while the young are still developing. A significant increase in the frequency of sexually transmitted diseases is also present, to which the youth are especially susceptible due to the specific development period in which they are in. A serious medical and sociopathological problem of contemporary society represents the greater and greater misuse of psychoactive substances among the young people, with a tendency of decreasing the average age they are consumed for the first time, as well as the use of drugs and alcohol. With the increase of the anti-smoking campaign and restrictive measures in highly developed countries smoking among young people is decreasing, while it is increasing in Eastern Europe and developing countries. As the health disorders of young people mentioned above, are conditioned, above all, by their risky behavior and insufficient relation towards health, the degree to which they are widespread can be influenced by prevention. Educational and health institutes represent the carriers of preventive activity, which understands health education and aid to young people in overcoming life's skills, along with the necessity to direct support to the family as well, which maintains a significant place in the life of young people and has a important influence on their behavior to risk exposure. A significant influence is also legal and provision regulations, the role of mass media, as well as the activities of political, nongovernmental, religious and other organizations which determine the environment in which young people live.