Morbidity
In
medicine,
epidemiology and
actuarial science, the term
morbidity can refer to
* the state of being
diseased (from
Latin morbidus: sick, unhealthy),
* the degree or severity of a disease,
* the
prevalence of a disease: the
total number of cases in a particular population at a particular point in time,
* the
incidence of a disease: the number of
new cases in a particular population during a particular time interval.
In
actuarial science the term can also refer to
disability irrespective of cause (e.g., disability caused by
accidents).
Accordingly, the term
morbidity rate can refer either to the incidence rate or to the prevalence rate of a disease. Compare with
mortality rate, the number of people dying from a particular disease during a given time interval, divided by the total number of people in the population. Morbidity is often what is measured by
ICU scoring systems.