Mortality and Morbidity in the United States as Basic Indices of Health Needs

With mortality and case-fatality rates for most illnesses now relatively low, the level of health in a population is today most adequately measured if mortality rates are sup plemented by morbidity rates and other measures of social well-being. The mortality rate in the United States has gone down steadily since 1900, although in recent years this trend has halted. Declines have been greatest at the younger ages, among females, and among nonwhites. The communicable diseases have declined as leading causes of death, but they have been replaced by degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, and also by accidents. The drop in mor tality has increased life expectancy and survivorship, and this in turn has resulted in an increase in the aged population, a group often in poorer health and requiring more medical care and services. The average durations of family life and work ing life have also lengthened. Partly because of the decline in mortality, but also because of increased health consciousness, a greater awareness of illness, and decreased social and eco nomic penalties resulting from it, the prevalence of both chronic and acute illness may have increased. The rate of hospitalized mental illness has risen since earlier in the century, but since 1955 the number of patients resident in long-term mental institutions has declined.