Question

Which of the following is a positive mortality indicator?

• A. IMR (Infant mortality rate)
• B. Child mortality rate
• C. MMR (Maternal mortality rate)
• D. Life expectancy

Hint:

Look for the one indicator where a higher value means a healthier population.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Mortality indicators include crude death rate, maternal mortality rate, life expectancy, disease-specific mortality, infant mortality rate, age-specific death rate, child mortality rate, adult mortality rate, under-5 proportional mortality and years of potential life lost.

Step 2: A positive health indicator is one where a higher value means better health. Among mortality indicators, only life expectancy (expectation of life) is positive, because a rise in life expectancy reflects improvement in the health of the community. So option d is correct.

Step 3: Infant mortality rate, child mortality rate and maternal mortality rate are negative indicators. When their values increase, it implies poorer health of the population. Hence they cannot be the answer.

Step 4: Therefore the only positive mortality indicator is life expectancy.