Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Physicians and other professionals are contin- ually called upon to make decisions about treat- ment and programs intended to affect the health of individuals and populations.This enormous re- sponsibility makes understanding the measures of health imperative.Toward this end, a review of the status of health status indicators was under- taken.Specifically addressed were the following questions: What is health?What are the purposes of health status indicators?What are the problems in developing adequate measures of health?What is the present state of the art in measuring health status?Are any of the new and developing health status indicators practical?And finally, what is the outlook for health status indicators?The Concept of HealthThe most often quoted definition of health is that of the World Health Organization: "Health is OF HEALTHŜ TATUS INDICATR
Seth B. Goldsmith (Sat,) studied this question.