Interrelation of Incidence, Prevalence, Morbidity, and Mortality Rates - Essay Example

Morbidity on the other hand refers to the degree of effect of a disease on the victim. Mortality represents the number of deaths resulting from a given disease (Friis and Sellers 93-99).

These terms could be interrelated in different ways. For instance, when the incidence rate increases, the prevalence increases correspondingly. However, morbidity could be independent of incidence and prevalence. On the other hand, morbidity and mortality rate are largely dependent. When the morbidity rate is high, then mortality rates are also likely to be high as well. This is because a disease with a high morbidity rate is likely to cause more fatalities hence higher mortality rates.

High incidence rates could also mean high mortality rates, as a high incidence rate translates to a higher number of people being diagnosed with a given disease. The higher the incidence rates, the higher the probability of fatalities, which translates to high mortality rates. Conversely, high mortality rates could be highly correlated to high morbidity, incidence, or prevalence rates, or a combination of them.