The Newfoundland and Labrador Population Health Index (NLPHI): A Computerized Framework for Population-Level Longitudinal Health Outcome Monitoring
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52609/jmlph.v6i3.264Keywords:
Disability-Adjusted Life Years, Health Status Indicators, Life Expectancy, Mortality, Public HealthAbstract
Background: Routine monitoring in public health and primary care settings benefits from a compact, population-level metric that summarizes multi-domain burdens in an interpretable way.
Aims: To introduce the Newfoundland and Labrador Population Health Index (NLPHI) and a reference computerized implementation designed to be interpretable, auditable, and computationally transparent.
Methods: NLPHI aggregates domain-specific intensity and mortality terms into domain-specific affect values (DSAV) and returns a scalar Population Health Index (PHI) by averaging DSAV scores across domains within defined reporting periods. The formulation connects to life-table and burden-of-disease thinking by combining a time-loss component with a remaining-life-expectancy-weighted mortality component, while remaining intentionally lightweight relative to formal disability-adjusted life years (DALY) calculation. A reference computerized application was implemented for feasibility evaluation using publicly available validated datasets.
Results: The approach yields per-domain DSAV scores and an overall PHI suitable for routine monitoring, communication, and longitudinal review. The computerized application demonstrates reproducible computation, auditability, and trend visualization without reliance on proprietary databases.
Conclusion: NLPHI provides a pragmatic, transparent framework for population-level health assessment and tracking. Strengths and limitations are outlined, and avenues for calibration and further validation studies are identified to support broader deployment.
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