AN ECONOMIC CONCEPT OF HEALTH STATUS

EZE, Pius C. (2018) AN ECONOMIC CONCEPT OF HEALTH STATUS. GOUni Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 4 (1). ISSN 2550-7265

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Abstract

What is the best way to conceptualize and measure health status? It is accepted in the health economics literature that the best concepts of health status are morbidity measures (rather than mortality measures) because morbidity measures can capture aspects of the quality of life of the population as well as the individual. There is as yet no consensus regarding the best morbidity concepts or measurement methods. This paper develops a concept of health status in terms of the individual’s illness. The reasoning is that, at least for curative medical care, the appropriate concept of health status is a measure of how ill a person is. This paper proposes a variable termed severity-of-illness to represent how ill a person is. Severity-of-illness is a health deviation obtainable by comparing the person’s level of health when sick with the same person’s level of health when healthy. This illness concept of health status is in agreement with common usage.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) L Education > L Education (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Management and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	GOUNI ICT
Date Deposited:	14 May 2018 10:09
Last Modified:	14 May 2018 10:09
URI:	http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/52

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