don t confuse morbidity rates with mortality rates which measure how many deaths occur in a specific population 
morbidity rate vs mortality ratepeople often confuse morbidity rates with mortality rates although they sound the same they are different while morbidity rates refer to the frequency of disease and illness in a certain area the mortality rate is used to describe the frequency of death in a population mortality is the direct result of a condition or illness the mortality rate is determined by dividing the number of deaths that result from an illness by the total population 3mortality rates can be divided into different categories based on various measures including infant mortality and cause related mortality other rates for diseasesthe proportion of initial disease cases to a population is an incidence rate in contrast the proportion of initial and existing disease cases in a population is known as the prevalence rate 3for example 50 000 new cases of heart disease developed in a city with a population of five million in a single year while the incidence of morbidity rate is 1 if 250 000 people already suffer from heart disease in the city the prevalence rate increases from 5 to 6 