sykdomsalvorlighet

Sykdomsalvorlighet, or severity of disease, describes how seriously a disease affects an individual. It encompasses the overall burden of illness, including the intensity of symptoms, the presence of organ dysfunction, the risk of complications, and the likelihood of death. The concept is used in clinical care, research, and public health to describe how dangerous or debilitating a disease is for a given person.

Sykdomsalvorlighet is multidimensional. It covers immediate clinical needs (such as the need for hospitalization or intensive care), functional impact (limitations on daily activities), and potential long-term consequences or sequelae. It is distinct from virulence, which refers to a pathogen’s capacity to cause disease, and from incidence, which measures how often disease occurs in a population. Severity can vary between individuals due to age, comorbidities, genetics, and access to care, as well as between settings with different treatment options.

Measurement often relies on multiple indicators rather than a single metric. Clinicians use vital signs, laboratory results, imaging findings, and organ function to assess severity. Widely used scoring systems—such as APACHE II, SOFA, and disease-specific criteria—support standardized assessment, while general categories like mild, moderate, and severe are common in practice. Population-level assessments may emphasize hospitalization rates, ICU admission, and mortality, which are influenced by detection and treatment availability.

In clinical and public health contexts, understanding disease severity helps guide triage, treatment intensity, prognosis discussions, and resource allocation. Limitations include variation across settings, timing of assessment, and differences in underlying risk factors.