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The Burden of Disease Approach for Measuring Population Health

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Health in Megacities and Urban Areas

Part of the book series: Contributions to Statistics ((CONTRIB.STAT.))

Abstract

Quantitative assessments of the health status of a population are undisputedly an important source of information to support decision-making and priority-setting processes in the field of Public Health. A common practice to (a) indicate the average level and the distribution of health in a population and (b) identify the impact of diseases on population health has been the use of findings on the epidemiology of diseases and injuries, their causes and risk factors. One major part of such efforts has targeted the determination of mortality patterns based on death and causes of death statistics. In addition, findings on mortality and its derivative life expectancy have widely been used as surrogates to inform about the overall health status as well as to identify the most important health problems in a population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Medicine, School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Paulo Pinheiro, Dietrich Plaß & Alexander Krämer

Authors
  1. Paulo Pinheiro
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  2. Dietrich Plaß
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  3. Alexander Krämer
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Correspondence to Alexander Krämer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fak. Gesundheitswissenschaften, Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstr. 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Germany

    Alexander Krämer

  2. , Department of Public Health Medicine, School of Public Health, Bielefeld Unive, Bielefeld, 33501, Germany

    Mobarak Hossain Khan

  3. , Institute of Geography, Cologne University, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, Cologne, 50923, Germany

    Frauke Kraas

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Pinheiro, P., Plaß, D., Krämer, A. (2011). The Burden of Disease Approach for Measuring Population Health. In: Krämer, A., Khan, M., Kraas, F. (eds) Health in Megacities and Urban Areas. Contributions to Statistics. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2733-0_2

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