This paper discusses several basic conceptual and methodological problems in the development and use of health indicators. We observe that two tendencies of the health indicators movement may deter progress toward producing information useful in decision making, namely, the quest for elegant mathematical formulations of health status indexes and the tendency to conceptualize “health” in terms of expansive definitions. To improve the utility of such information, it is suggested that health indicators should measure variables specified by a social system model and should be scaled according to units that are relevant to decision-making criteria.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
SheldonE. B.FreemanH. E.Notes on social indicators: Promises and potential. Policy Sciences1: 97–111, 1970.
2.
GrossB. M.Planning: Let's not leave it to the economists. Challenge14 (1): 30–33, 1965.
3.
GrossB. M.Social state of the union. Trans-Action3 (1): 14–17, 1965.
4.
AgocsC.Social indicators: Selected readings. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science388: 127–132, March 1970.
5.
SpringerM.Social indicators, reports, and accounts: Toward the management of society. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science388: 1–13, 1970.
6.
CohenW. J., editor. Toward a Social Report, p. 97. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1970.
7.
CohenW. J.Social indicators: Statistics for public policy. American Statistician22: 14, 1968.
8.
GrossB. M.SpringerM.New goals for social information. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science373: 211, 1967.
9.
OlsonM.An analytic framework for social reporting and policy analysis. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science388: 112–126, 1970.
10.
LandK. C.On the definition of social indicators. American Sociologist6 (4): 322–325, 1971.
11.
FeldsteinP. J.KelmanS.A framework for an econometric model of the medical care sector. In Empirical Studies in Health Economics, edited by KlarmanH. E., pp. 171–190. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1970.
12.
HenriotP. T.Political questions about social indicators. Western Political Quarterly23 (2): 235–255, 1970.
13.
BlalockH. M.Jr.The measurement problem: A gap between the language of theory and research. In Methodology in Social Research, edited by BlalockH. M.BlalockA. B., pp. 18–23. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1968.
14.
StinchcombeA. L.Constructing Social Theories. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1968.
15.
ForresterJ. W.Urban Dynamics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1969.
16.
ThompsonJ. D.Organizations in Action, p. 134. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967.
17.
SimonH. A.The New Science of Management Decision. Harper and Row, New York, 1960.
18.
HempelC. G.Fundamentals of Concept Formation in Empirical Science, p. 8. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1952.
19.
GoldsmithS. B.The status of health status indicators. Health Services Reports87: 213, 1972.
20.
ZolaI. K.Culture and symptoms-An analysis of patients' presenting complaints. American Sociological Review31: 616, 1966.
21.
SullivanD. F.Conceptual Problems in Developing an Index of Health. Public Health Service Publication No. 1000, Series 2, No. 17. National Center for Health Statistics, Washington, D. C., 1966.
22.
MoriyamaI. M.Problems in the measurement of health status. In Indicators of Social Change, edited by SheldonE. B.MooreW. E., pp. 573–600. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1968.
23.
ChiangC. L.An Index of Health Mathematical Models. Public Health Service Publication No. 1000, Series 2, No. 5. National Center for Health Statistics, Washington, D. C., 1965.
24.
SullivanD. F.A single index of mortality and morbidity. HSMHA Health Reports86 (4): 347–354, 1971.
25.
SpautzM. E.The socio-economic gap. Social Science Research1 (2): 211–229, 1972.
26.
RiceD. P.Estimating the cost of illness. Health Economics Series, No. 6. U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D. C., 1966.
27.
KalimoE.SieversK.The need for medical care: Estimation on the basis of interview data. Med. Care6 (1): 1–17, 1968.
28.
LernerM.Conceptualization of health and social well-being. In Health Status Indexes, edited by BergR. L., pp. 1–11. Hospital Research and Educational Trust, Chicago, 1973.
