ASSIGNMENT REPORT

Health indicators it is a characteristic of an individual, population, or environment which is

subject to measurement (directly or indirectly) and can be used to describe one or more aspects
of the health of an individual or population (quality, quantity and time).
Indicators can be
Count (number of..)
Proportion (percentage, number/per x)
Rate (frequency of an event during a specified period expressed as
100,000) in a defined population

per 1,000 or

Ratio (numerator not included in the denominator)

Average
Index
Use of health indicators
1)Indicators are powerful tools for monitoring and communicating critical
information about population health.
2)Indicators are used to support planning (identify priorities, develop and target
resources, identify benchmarks) and track progress toward broad community
objectives.
3) Engagement of partners into a collaborative action (build awareness of problems
and trends, generate interventions
The Indian Context
1)Life expectancy has increased from 40 years in 1960 to 66.21 years in 2016
2)Infant mortality rate (per 1000 births) has reduced from 250 in 1960 to 54 in 2016
3)Around 3% people suffer from obesity in 2016 compared to less than 1% in 1960
4) 4.5 % people suffer from diabetes in 2016 compared to less than 1% in 1960
Problems in Indian healthcare system
1)Urban and Rural areas - Lifestyle diseases due to changing working/living habits coupled with
processed products increasing the instances of diabetes, cardio-vascular disorders, even cancer

2) Urban poor due to poor physical infrastructure and awareness leading to communicable
and infectious diseases like tuberculosis, typhoid and other water borne diseases. The same
can be said of villages with poor sanitation facilities.
3) Lack of access to healthcare services. If you drive 20 kms out of Bangalore (or any of the
other metros) you will find it hard to find any significant medical care. Diagnosis and
treatment is just not accessible to hundreds of millions of Indians.

Solutions
1) More investments in health infrastructure
2) Improved low cost diagnostics and a way to make the human resources required for
the same accessible to large sections of our population
3) Improvements at the policy and insurance level