Helsinki region morbidity index

The morbidity index is calculated by means of three register variables describing the morbidity of the population. These are the share of people on disability pension among the working-age population, the share of persons entitled to special reimbursements for medicines (representing long-term morbidity) and the mortality rate of the population.

The Social Insurance Institution has developed a morbidity index for examining health disparities between regions.

The morbidity index shows, by means of an index calculated for each municipality in Finland, how healthy or sick the population is in relation to the average of the population of the whole country (= 100). The figure is expressed both as such and as age-standardised (here only as age-standardised). The morbidity index is based on three register variables: mortality, the share of people on disability pension among the working-age population and the share of people entitled to special reimbursements for medicines. Each variable is proportional to the average of the national population. The final morbidity index is the average of the three sub-indices.

Further information on the method of calculating the index is available in the National Public Health Institute of Finland’s Terveyspuntari material(in Finnish).

The data for different years are not directly comparable with each other.

Source of the Helsinki region morbidity index 2017 data: Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Separate statistics on the morbidity index made for the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa by area in 2017.

Source of the Helsinki morbidity index 2019 data: City Executive Office, Helsinki. The source data is from Kela, but the indices have been calculated in Helsinki.