What’s the Difference between Morbidity vs. Mortality?

What’s the Difference between Morbidity vs. Mortality?

Everyone wants to live forever without any disease and does not want to die, right? This sentence consists of two different and important terms; What is Morbidity, and what is mortality? These two nouns look similar to you, but there is a big difference between these two. 

The definition of Morbidity is an unhealthy state of mind and the illness of your body. Your body’s morbid state is related to the disease state where you feel that you will die, but that is just a condition of illness. However, the definition of mortality is the state or condition of being subjected to death. The mortality does not refer to the mental state of diseases. 

What is Morbidity?

The term Morbidity is used to describe a disorder, illness, and the degradation of health. If you have any disease or disorder which is harmful to you, that state is known as morbidity. Age is also a factor in morbidity as the age-related diseases get worse with age and can harm your lifespan. 

The lifespan of a person depends on the Morbidity of that person. If a person’s morbidity rate is higher, the expected lifespan of that person gets shorter. In comparison to a healthy person, the high morbidity rate in a person results in an increased risk of death. However, Morbidity does not mean that your disorders or diseases will lead to immediately life-threatening conditions. If you recover from the disease, it shows a high rate of mortality. 

For example- A very deadly disease, cancer, causes major Morbidity in people because the symptoms result in low or ill-health conditions. The Morbidity is subjected to the dark or a negative side of medical treatment. If you have a disease or any medical problem, it is counted in Morbidity.

The definition, which is mentioned above, will clear your doubt about what is Morbidity? There are some of the most common diseases which cause Morbidity in people. Here is the list of those diseases:

  • Heart disease
  • Cancer
  • Chronic lower respiratory disease 
  • Stroke
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Kidney disease `
  • Alzheimer’s disease 
  • Pneumonia
  • Influenza 

Ensure you do not link Morbidity to the risk of death; it is only related to health issues. If you are talking about death and the risk of death, you need another noun or a word. 

The morbidity rate is the percentage of people who have complications from a medical disease or after the treatment. 

How to Prevent Morbidity? 

What is Morbidity? Morbidity is a condition in which a person suffers from harmful diseases, but some treatments can prevent the morbid person. These ways can reduce the rate of Morbidity in a person.

  • If you are familiar with your disease, then do not waste much time to diagnose the disease. Consult a doctor as soon as possible and start the treatment of your disease. However, if you are not familiar with the disease and observe some unusual symptoms, consult a doctor for screening and analyze your disease. As an early diagnosis of disease will improve the person’s life quality and lowers the rate of Morbidity. 
  • Eat healthy food. Food choice is also an important factor in preventing Morbidity, and healthy plant foods are the best preferences. The intake of fruits and vegetables can help you to reduce the threats of morbidity. Start including fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily diet; it will help you improve your health and lower your morbidity rate. 
  • Avoid stress and anxiety, and keep yourself motivated as these problems will turn your mind and thoughts into negative ones. If a person is suffering from panic mental conditions, the anxiety will affect the person more. So make sure you surround yourself with good people. A happy and carefree behavior will improve your health and reduce the rate or Morbidity. 

What is Mortality?

The word might give you a horror or a dark feel when you read it, but mortality is related to death and not just a person’s disease.

For example,- A dangerous accident happens with a person, and the condition is very critical, and the risk of death is high in that person. If, in such cases the person dies because of the accident, this condition will be called mortality. 

The mortality refers to a specific death rate in any area. The Death rate and mortality rate are connected as if the mortality rate is higher proportionally, and the death rate will also increase. 

You can take a good example from the current coronavirus situation; many people are dying daily due to this disease’s harmful situations. Many deaths lead to a high mortality rate and increase the death rate in any country. 

If there is mass destruction or death in your country due to a pandemic, war conditions, and famine, it refers to mortality. So if a world war gets started between countries, it will result in high mortality. 

What are morbidity and mortality are two different terms described by the differentiated meanings of both the terms? 

The number of deaths recorded in a given area or period from a particular cause is known as the mortality rate. 

To count the mortality rate, a specific formula is used

 the total number of deaths during a given time is divided by the population’s size and multiplies by 1000 or 10000. 

Difference between Morbidity and Mortality

These two words sound similar, but three is a big difference in both the terms. You can not interchange the words with each other. Some simple examples will clear the doubt related to; what is Morbidity and what is mortality? 

If a person’s mental health or health disorder is being described, it is known as the Morbidity. Morbidity is only related to the health of a person in which diseases or disorders are being counted. However, a person’s illness is not connected with death; these are both different terms.

Examples:

  • According to the World Health Organization estimates, the infections are harmful to your health at 0.5% of morbidity rate. It results in around 12500 deaths.
  • People with high age have more risk of having morbidity because old age people easily catch diseases. 
  • The low income and unemployment in adults also lead to an increase in morbidity rates. The suicide rate is also counted as high in the U.S., i.e., 75% of deaths are recorded by suicide. 

In simple words, mortality is related to death. The risk of death and the factors related to death are related to mortality. 

Morbidity and mortality can be related in some cases. Like, If a person is having surgery, it will decrease the Morbidity, and mortality is also associated with this injury. The surgery is a key element as it will lower the risk of disease and reduce death risk. 

Examples:

  • If a country has recorded a minimum of 5,223 numbers of COVID-19 cases of death, the mortality rate will be 1.9%. 
  • The mortality rate shows the figure of how many people died during the war conditions. 
  • Suicides due to mental health issues are one of the leading causes of mortality among adults. 

Final words

Life is very complicated, but the terms related to life are not. This article helps you to clear the doubt regarding; what is Morbidity and what is mortality? Always remember these two terms are different and are used in different contexts. Take care of your health if you want to improve your morbidity rate; otherwise, the diseases and illness will increase the Morbidity. 

All the aspects related to death come in mortality. If the deaths are controlled and less in number, the mortality rate can improve, but when the death rate is higher, the mortality also increases. So stay fit and eat healthy foods to improve Morbidity and lower the risk of death. 

Ali

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