The Demopædia Encyclopedia on Population is under heavy modernization and maintenance. Outputs could look bizarre, sorry for the temporary inconvenience

Prevalence rate

From Demopædia
Jump to: navigation, search
Prevalence rate  (PREVALENCE rate)


Three aspects of morbidity (420-1) are commonly measured by morbidity rates1 or morbidity ratios1: frequency, duration and severity. Two indices of the frequency of ill-health are the incidence rate2, the number of new cases of disease related to the average population at a particular period of time, and the prevalence rate3, which is the number of cases of ill-health existing at a given moment of time expressed per unit of the average population. The average duration per case4 or the disability rate5, which is the average number of days of disability6 per person, may serve as a measure of the duration of illness. The case fatality rate7, which is the proportion of fatal cases among the reported cases of the specified disease, may be used as an index of severity. It is usually computed only for acute diseases of relatively short duration.
More...