Morbidity

Morbidity refers to the absence of health, including physical and psychological well-being. In medical decision making, one cares about morbidity in the following three constructs: (1) the baseline incidence or prevalence of morbidity in the absence of an intervention; (2) the decrease in morbidity in the presence of an efficacious, effective, and cost-effective prevention or treatment intervention; and, in some cases, (3) the increase in morbidity because of an intervention, in terms of adverse events.

Morbidity is commonly measured by the incidence or prevalence of disease or injury. Incidence is the number of new cases of disease or injury in a population over a period of time. Incidence is a rate and describes the probability that healthy or disease-free people will develop the disease or ...