Helseindikator

Helseindikator is a quantitative measure used to describe aspects of population health, such as health outcomes, risk factors, or health system performance. It is part of public health surveillance and health policy analysis and is closely related to the international concept of a health indicator.

Common examples include life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, prevalence or incidence of specific diseases, disability-adjusted life years, self-rated health, vaccination coverage, and access indicators such as wait times or physician density.

Uses include monitoring trends over time, benchmarking between regions or countries, guiding policy priorities, and evaluating the impact of health interventions. Data typically come from vital statistics, health surveys, administrative health records, cancer registries, and disease registries, sometimes harmonized by international organizations like WHO or OECD.

Classifications often distinguish structure indicators (inputs), process indicators, outputs, and outcomes, or categorize indicators as health status, risk factors, and health system performance. Limitations include data quality and comparability, cultural and contextual variation, timeliness, and the influence of measurement definitions. Care is needed when interpreting indicators across populations or over time.

Notes: Helseindikator is used in Norwegian and Danish contexts; in English discourse the term is usually translated as health indicator.