Toward sociomedical health indicators

The various forms of mortality data and biomedical measures of morbidity have become inadequate measures of the level of health in economically developed countries. Measures of functional physical capacity have some advantages but do not reflect physical impairment. Current attempts to develop sociomedical health indicators include: measures of social disability; typologies of presenting symptoms, which have been used to estimate probable needs for care; measures which focus on behavioral expressions of sickness; research based on operational definitions of ‘positive mental health’, ‘happiness’ and perceived quality of life; assessments of met and unmet needs for health care, which are measures of social capacity to care for the sick. Sociomedical indicators reflect both objective conditions and social values. They are policy-oriented, serving as mobilizing agents for sociopolitical pressures concerned with raising the overall level of health of the population.