VITAL HEALTH

INDICES
z

Cristina D. Achacoso, M.D.

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NATALITY
 Used mostly in the area of parental and child
health. 
 Frequently used natality measures :
 crude birth rate

 general fertility rate

 crude rate of natural increase

 low birth weight ratio 

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NATALITY
 CRUDE BIRTH RATE (CBR) is a summary rate
based on the number of live births in a
population over a given period of time –
usually one year – per 1,000 people.
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NATALITY
 GENERAL FERTILITY RATE (GFR) is a refined
crude birth rate. 
 Denominator includes only women of
childbearing age – usually 15-44 or 15-49 years
of age (Last, 2001)
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NATALITY

 LOW BIRTH WEIGHT RATIO (LBWR) includes

infants with birth weight < 2500 grams whether
preterm or term
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NATALITY

 CRUDE RATE OF NATURAL INCREASE (RNI) 

measures population growth
 Includes only births and deaths
 Excludes migration
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MORTALITY

 Two types: crude and specific rates

 CRUDE DEATH RATE
 Numerator: deaths all causes
 Denominator: total population from
which the deaths arise
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MORTALITY
 Specific death rates
 Numerator: deaths limited to a group with a
common link (age, cause, sex)
 Denominator: population from which the
numerator is drawn
Age-specific Death Rate
Cause-specific DR*
Sex-specific DR

*approximates the risk of death from a specific condition – one of the

most important epidemiologic indices available.
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MORTALITY

 Combination of Specific death rates

 Mortality rates can be further refined by
combining cause-specific, age-specific
and/or sex specific rates.

Ex: Mortality rate attributed to HIV/AIDS

(cause-specific) among 25- to 44-year-old (age-
specific) males (sex specific) in the Region X
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MORTALITY
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MORTALITY
 CASE FATALITY RATE (CFR)
 Proportion of all persons diagnosed with a
particular disease (cases) who have died, within a
specific period of time
 Expressed as a percentage
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MORTALITY
 PROPORTIONATE MORTALITY RATE (PMR)
 Proportion of deaths in a particular population over a
specified period of time, attributable to different
causes.
 Provides an estimate of the proportion of lives that
could be extended by reducing a cause of death
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MORTALITY
 PROPORTIONATE MORTALITY RATE (PMR)
 Each cause is expressed as a percentage of all
deaths.  sum of all of the causes = 100%.
 These proportions are not mortality rates
(denominator is all deaths )
 Indicates the relative importance of a specific cause
of death in relation to all deaths in the population
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MORTALITY

 Standardization of Rates
 “like” must be compared with “like”

 Age standardization is a procedure for adjusting

a rate to minimize the effects of differences in
age composition when comparing rates for
different populations
Infant and
Child
Mortality
Rates
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CHILD MORTALITY
PERIODS OF EARLY LIFE:
CHART OF EARLY LIFE MORTALITY RATES
Infant Mortality Rates
(General Formula)
 FETAL DEATHS INFANT DEATHS
(spontaneous intrauterine (death of a child any time before
death of a fetus at any time he reaches the first year of life,
during pregnancy) i.e. up to 364 days)

28 wks AOG 7 28
CONCEPTIO BIRT 1 y/o
N H
Gestation Infancy
 Early Neonatal Death Rate Neonatal Death Rate
Late Neonatal Death Rate

Post-neonatal Death Rate

28 wks AOG 7 28
CONCEPTIO BIRT 1 y/o
N H
Fetal Death Rate Infant Mortality Rate

Perinatal Mortality
Rate
Numerator = deaths (defined by time period)
 Denominator = Live births
EXCEPT Perinatal mortality rate
whose denominator is Total Births

Total Births = live births + fetal deaths