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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Population health problems are among the world’s main concerns. However, mortality and morbidity alone do not fully encompass the health experience of populations. International efforts are underway to verify health experiences using functioning as the third health indicator. The aim of the study was to compare the functioning profile of the Chilean population with mortality and morbidity rates due to neurological, circulatory, respiratory, and musculoskeletal diseases at the regional level. Methods: An ecological study was conducted with the secondary dataset II Estudio Nacional de la Discapacidad (ENDISC) and mortality and hospitalization rates from the Departamento de Estadísticas e Información en Salud. The II-ENDISC was a national household survey, based on the Model Disability Survey, carried out in 2015. Results: The correlation of functioning with morbidity and mortality rates was determined by Spearman’s correlation. The correlation values of the mortality and morbidity coefficients with the performance and disability data were not relevant and significant (p < 0.35; p > 0.05). This suggests a lack of a linear relationship between these indicators at the regional level. Conclusions: The analysis of the Chilean population revealed that performance values, as an expression of functioning, do not correlate with morbidity or mortality rates. This discrepancy underscores the limitations of relying solely on traditional health indicators to capture the complexity of population health. Our findings support the conceptual value of functioning as a complementary and distinct health indicator, rather than a proxy for morbidity or mortality.

Details

Title
Why Functioning Should Be Used as a Population Health Indicator? A Discussion of a Chilean Population Study
Author
Barreto Marina Carvalho Arruda 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cartes-Velásquez Ricardo 2 ; Campos, Valeria 3 ; Castaneda, Luciana 4 ; Castro, Shamyr Sulyvan 1 

 Public Health Department, Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza 60430-140, Brazil; [email protected] 
 Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad San Sebastián, Concepción 4080870, Chile; [email protected] 
 Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Temuco 4810101, Chile; [email protected] 
 Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro, IFRJ, Rio de Janeiro 20260-100, Brazil; [email protected] 
First page
1606
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
22279032
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3229143905
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.