Glossary:Chronic morbidity
Chronic morbidity is a dimension of health capturing long-term (chronic) symptoms, health conditions or diseases. Indicators based on this concept can be used to evaluate the general health status, prevalence of health problems, health inequalities and health care needs at the population level.
Example of an operational definition used within the European Statistical System:
- One question instrument assessing the presence of long-standing health problems: “Do you have any longstanding illness or health problem?” Yes / No. The question was developed for the EUROHIS project “Developing common instruments for health surveys”. It is used in the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) (HS2 variable) and in the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) (PH020 variable).