Almost always, a department or ministry of health reports the top 10 mortalities and morbidities (or diseases) seen in a country every year
How should one interpret or perceive these lists?
Issues:
Do they automatically reflect on the health of the country or the local community (if the lists come from a province or city)?
Do they automatically mean that the causes of mortalities and morbidities should be totally eradicated?
Issue 1: Do they automatically reflect on the health of the country or the local community (if the lists come from a province or city)?
The lists of top 10 mortalities and morbidities do not automatically reflect on the health of the country or local community. The lists do not imply right away an unhealthy country or local community. They are just lists of the top 10 causes of mortalities and morbidities in the country or local community which should be analyzed further. In the analysis of the mortalities, one has to look at the magnitude such as how many people are dying in each of the top 10 causes, the success rates of preventive measures and the impact on the overall mortality rate (life expectancy) of the population. In the analysis of the mordidities, one has to look at the magnitude such as the case load of each of the top 10 causes, success rates of preventive measures, and the impact on the overall mortality rate (life expectancy) of the population. If at the end of the analyses, the mortalities or the morbidities are significantly affecting the life expectancy, then one can say that the lists reflect on the health of the country or local community.
Issue 2: Do they automatically mean that the causes of mortalities and morbidities should be totally eradicated?
The lists of top 10 mortalities and morbidities do not automatically mean that all the causes should be totally eradicated. Assuming one can totally eradicate them (which is realistically extremely difficult), another set of top 10 mortalities and morbdities (different from current ones) will appear in the coming year. One has to analyze the causes of each mortality and morbidity, look at their magnitude and importance, success rates of prevention, and then decide which should be given priority action and the extent of control to be done in the coming year. There will usually be rearrangement in the lists in the coming year (which may or may not result from one's action plans) or some disappearing and replaced by another cause. This is the best that one can do. What is important is to target a goal in which the magnitude of each of the 10 top causes of mortalities and morbidities is within an acceptable level.
ROJ@17apr15