health outcomes

Meaning: Health outcomes are the measurable results of health in individuals or populations. Common measures are morbidity (rate of illness), mortality (rate of death), life expectancy, infant mortality, and disability. Incidence counts new cases in a period; prevalence counts all existing cases. In sociology they are the dependent variable, shaped by social factors such as socioeconomic status, education, race and ethnicity, gender, and access to care. Differences between groups are health disparities.

On the MCAT: A passage gives data on groups, such as mortality by income or education, and asks for the trend, the likely social factor, or a confounder. Usually, outcomes are better at higher socioeconomic status, a pattern called the social gradient. Questions may ask which measure fits (prevalence for the burden of a chronic disease, incidence for new risk) or whether an observational design can support a causal claim.

Common confusion: Morbidity is illness and mortality is death, so a group can have high morbidity with low mortality. Also, an outcome is the result, not the behavior (smoking) or access (insurance) that leads to it; those are pathways between social position and outcome.