Definition of Health Status Another reason for small marginal effect of medicalcare on health could be due to the use of a verygeneral definition of health, i.e., measures based onoverall mortality Medical care is targeted toward specific health statusconditions, prevention of specific illness and shouldbe evaluated by measuring the effects on thesespecific conditions Exam the effect on an “index” of health status whenthe health status has already declined due to illnessor other health conditions