Report of the fifteenth anniversary conference : review and evaluation of past activities of the Committee with suggestions for future study in demographic, health, and medical-economic statistics.

  • United States. National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.
Date:
1966
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the fifteenth anniversary conference : review and evaluation of past activities of the Committee with suggestions for future study in demographic, health, and medical-economic statistics. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/36 (page 11)
    observation in relation to the different chronic diseases; only then are we going to get measures of the quality of medical care in relation to its impact on the health status of the population, Earlier, Dr. Densen had remarked that mortality is a relatively poor standard for measuring the health status of the aged. With another problem, the addictive dis- orders, the usual methods for obtaining prevalence and incidence are impractical. Mortality statistics do not reveal the addicts; household surveys seldom count them; laboratory tests are not available on a population basis; and no single agency in the community comes in contact with them. During discussion it was suggested that the Committee might develop ''a plan of service Statistics for some of the new health programs that are going into areas where we haven't tried measurement and evaluation heretofore. The mental health and mental retardation areas were mentioned as examples. OTHER STUDY PROPOSALS At the close of the sessionof which he was moderator, Dr. Linder asked for other study suggestions. Included were the following: Ways in which the Committee might develop and maintain closer liaison with teaching institutions Family studies Conceptual problems arising from multiple cause-of-death tabulation A food survey to consider the relationship of food to health A more fundamental consideration of cause- of-death statistics, not necessarily based on the present format of the death certificate A reconsideration of the conceptual design of the National Health Survey in the light of changing needs for morbidity data Emotional stress in pregnant women and the effect on pregnancy outcome Topics the Committee had decided not to investigate over the 15 years of its existence C. Health Resource and Service Statistics Moderator Dr. Franklin D. Yoder Discussants: Dr. Odin W. Anderson Dr. Walter J. McNerney In introducing the discussion of statistics on health resources and services Dr. Yoder noted that this is a very broad subject in which standards are now changing rapidly. PRESENTATION BY DR. ANDERSON Dr. Anderson reminded the conferees that the order of discussion that had been pursued was valid both chronologically and logically in that it had proceeded from consideration of mor- tality and natality through consideration of mor- bidity to consideration of health resources, facil- ities, and personnel. Routine reporting in these last areas is now as reasonable as routine reporting in the other areas; and we must now try to join or relate the three major areas to each other. The Committee's recently issued document, Statistics on Medical Economics (PHS Publica- tion No. 1125), is an excellent summary and estimate of current routine reporting, combined with realistic recommendations for further re- porting in the third major area ofhealth statistics now to be discussed. Our health services system, whichhas illness as its central concern, can be regardedina num- ber of ways: As an economic system, involving the flow of funds, investments, expenditures, into, through, and out of it As an anatomical system involving a dis- tribution by types of work of facilities and personnel As an organizational system, involving an interrelationship of patients, funds, person- nel, use, in a vast establishment costing over $35 billion a year As ahuman system, involving human relations and interactions