Public Health
Branch of medicine concerned with the prevention and control of disease and disability, and the promotion of physical and mental health of the population on the international, national, state, or municipal level.
World Health Organization
A specialized agency of the United Nations designed as a coordinating authority on international health work; its aim is to promote the attainment of the highest possible level of health by all peoples.
Health Status
The level of health of the individual, group, or population as subjectively assessed by the individual or by more objective measures.
World Health
The concept pertaining to the health status of inhabitants of the world.
Public Health Practice
The activities and endeavors of the public health services in a community on any level.
Delivery of Health Care
The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.
Public Health Administration
Management of public health organizations or agencies.
Health Policy
Decisions, usually developed by government policymakers, for determining present and future objectives pertaining to the health care system.
Health Promotion
Health Surveys
A systematic collection of factual data pertaining to health and disease in a human population within a given geographic area.
Health Care Reform
Innovation and improvement of the health care system by reappraisal, amendment of services, and removal of faults and abuses in providing and distributing health services to patients. It includes a re-alignment of health services and health insurance to maximum demographic elements (the unemployed, indigent, uninsured, elderly, inner cities, rural areas) with reference to coverage, hospitalization, pricing and cost containment, insurers' and employers' costs, pre-existing medical conditions, prescribed drugs, equipment, and services.
Health Planning
Planning for needed health and/or welfare services and facilities.
Health Services Accessibility
The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportational, and financial considerations, among others.
Attitude to Health
Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system.
Health Care Surveys
Statistical measures of utilization and other aspects of the provision of health care services including hospitalization and ambulatory care.
Primary Health Care
Public Health Nursing
A nursing specialty concerned with promoting and protecting the health of populations, using knowledge from nursing, social, and public health sciences to develop local, regional, state, and national health policy and research. It is population-focused and community-oriented, aimed at health promotion and disease prevention through educational, diagnostic, and preventive programs.
Health Behavior
Behaviors expressed by individuals to protect, maintain or promote their health status. For example, proper diet, and appropriate exercise are activities perceived to influence health status. Life style is closely associated with health behavior and factors influencing life style are socioeconomic, educational, and cultural.
Quality of Health Care
Health Personnel
Men and women working in the provision of health services, whether as individual practitioners or employees of health institutions and programs, whether or not professionally trained, and whether or not subject to public regulation. (From A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, 1976)
Health Services
Services for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and the maintenance of health.
Health Education
Education that increases the awareness and favorably influences the attitudes and knowledge relating to the improvement of health on a personal or community basis.
Health Services Needs and Demand
Health services required by a population or community as well as the health services that the population or community is able and willing to pay for.
Insurance, Health
Health Services Research
The integration of epidemiologic, sociological, economic, and other analytic sciences in the study of health services. Health services research is usually concerned with relationships between need, demand, supply, use, and outcome of health services. The aim of the research is evaluation, particularly in terms of structure, process, output, and outcome. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)
Environmental Health
The science of controlling or modifying those conditions, influences, or forces surrounding man which relate to promoting, establishing, and maintaining health.
Oral Health
Schools, Public Health
Educational institutions for individuals specializing in the field of public health.
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).
Health Expenditures
Health Priorities
Preferentially rated health-related activities or functions to be used in establishing health planning goals. This may refer specifically to PL93-641.
Health Status Disparities
National Health Programs
Public Health Informatics
Occupational Health
The promotion and maintenance of physical and mental health in the work environment.
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
The seeking and acceptance by patients of health service.
Health Care Rationing
Planning for the equitable allocation, apportionment, or distribution of available health resources.
Delivery of Health Care, Integrated
A health care system which combines physicians, hospitals, and other medical services with a health plan to provide the complete spectrum of medical care for its customers. In a fully integrated system, the three key elements - physicians, hospital, and health plan membership - are in balance in terms of matching medical resources with the needs of purchasers and patients. (Coddington et al., Integrated Health Care: Reorganizing the Physician, Hospital and Health Plan Relationship, 1994, p7)
Rural Health
The status of health in rural populations.
Urban Health
The status of health in urban populations.
Community Health Services
Mental Health Services
Organized services to provide mental health care.
Education, Public Health Professional
Education and training in PUBLIC HEALTH for the practice of the profession.
Community Health Planning
Planning that has the goals of improving health, improving accessibility to health services, and promoting efficiency in the provision of services and resources on a comprehensive basis for a whole community. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988, p299)
Health Care Sector
Economic sector concerned with the provision, distribution, and consumption of health care services and related products.
Population Surveillance
Socioeconomic Factors
Cross-Sectional Studies
Studies in which the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables are determined in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time. This contrasts with LONGITUDINAL STUDIES which are followed over a period of time.
United States Public Health Service
Attitude of Health Personnel
Child Health Services
Organized services to provide health care for children.
Health Literacy
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Rural Health Services
Health services, public or private, in rural areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.
Regional Health Planning
Planning for health resources at a regional or multi-state level.
Prevalence
The total number of cases of a given disease in a specified population at a designated time. It is differentiated from INCIDENCE, which refers to the number of new cases in the population at a given time.
Health Manpower
The availability of HEALTH PERSONNEL. It includes the demand and recruitment of both professional and allied health personnel, their present and future supply and distribution, and their assignment and utilization.
International Cooperation
Health Resources
Available manpower, facilities, revenue, equipment, and supplies to produce requisite health care and services.
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Activities and programs intended to assure or improve the quality of care in either a defined medical setting or a program. The concept includes the assessment or evaluation of the quality of care; identification of problems or shortcomings in the delivery of care; designing activities to overcome these deficiencies; and follow-up monitoring to ensure effectiveness of corrective steps.
Preventive Health Services
Services designed for HEALTH PROMOTION and prevention of disease.
Community Health Centers
Facilities which administer the delivery of health care services to people living in a community or neighborhood.
Disaster Planning
Disease Outbreaks
Sudden increase in the incidence of a disease. The concept includes EPIDEMICS and PANDEMICS.
Maternal Health Services
Organized services to provide health care to expectant and nursing mothers.
Policy Making
Health Occupations
Professions or other business activities directed to the cure and prevention of disease. For occupations of medical personnel who are not physicians but who are working in the fields of medical technology, physical therapy, etc., ALLIED HEALTH OCCUPATIONS is available.
Questionnaires
Interviews as Topic
Program Evaluation
Electronic Health Records
Media that facilitate transportability of pertinent information concerning patient's illness across varied providers and geographic locations. Some versions include direct linkages to online consumer health information that is relevant to the health conditions and treatments related to a specific patient.
Health Plan Implementation
Those actions designed to carry out recommendations pertaining to health plans or programs.
Public Policy
Interinstitutional Relations
Communicable Disease Control
Government Agencies
Administrative units of government responsible for policy making and management of governmental activities.
Health Benefit Plans, Employee
Poverty
Health Planning Guidelines
Recommendations for directing health planning functions and policies. These may be mandated by PL93-641 and issued by the Department of Health and Human Services for use by state and local planning agencies.
Organizational Objectives
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
An agency of the UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE that conducts and supports programs for the prevention and control of disease and provides consultation and assistance to health departments and other countries.
Health Services Administration
Public Health Dentistry
A dental specialty concerned with the prevention of disease and the maintenance of oral health through promoting organized dental health programs at a community, state, or federal level.
Great Britain
Age Factors
Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.
Occupational Health Services
Social Justice
India
I'm sorry for any confusion, but "India" is not a medical term that can be defined in a medical context. It is a geographical location, referring to the Republic of India, a country in South Asia. If you have any questions related to medical topics or definitions, I would be happy to help with those!
State Health Plans
State plans prepared by the State Health Planning and Development Agencies which are made up from plans submitted by the Health Systems Agencies and subject to review and revision by the Statewide Health Coordinating Council.
Brazil
National Institutes of Health (U.S.)
An operating division of the US Department of Health and Human Services. It is concerned with the overall planning, promoting, and administering of programs pertaining to health and medical research. Until 1995, it was an agency of the United States PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE.
Mental Disorders
Program Development
The process of formulating, improving, and expanding educational, managerial, or service-oriented work plans (excluding computer program development).
Quality of Life
Sex Factors
Maleness or femaleness as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from SEX CHARACTERISTICS, anatomical or physiological manifestations of sex, and from SEX DISTRIBUTION, the number of males and females in given circumstances.
Health Planning Support
Financial resources provided for activities related to health planning and development.
Logistic Models
Statistical models which describe the relationship between a qualitative dependent variable (that is, one which can take only certain discrete values, such as the presence or absence of a disease) and an independent variable. A common application is in epidemiology for estimating an individual's risk (probability of a disease) as a function of a given risk factor.
Cooperative Behavior
Health Care Coalitions
Voluntary groups of people representing diverse interests in the community such as hospitals, businesses, physicians, and insurers, with the principal objective to improve health care cost effectiveness.
Quality Indicators, Health Care
Norms, criteria, standards, and other direct qualitative and quantitative measures used in determining the quality of health care.
Internationality
Pregnancy
Needs Assessment
Local Government
Health Services for the Aged
Services for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the aged and the maintenance of health in the elderly.
Catchment Area (Health)
A geographic area defined and served by a health program or institution.
United States
The term "United States" in a medical context often refers to the country where a patient or study participant resides, and is not a medical term per se, but relevant for epidemiological studies, healthcare policies, and understanding differences in disease prevalence, treatment patterns, and health outcomes across various geographic locations.
Europe
Outcome and Process Assessment (Health Care)
State Government
Private Sector
Incidence
The number of new cases of a given disease during a given period in a specified population. It also is used for the rate at which new events occur in a defined population. It is differentiated from PREVALENCE, which refers to all cases, new or old, in the population at a given time.
Women's Health Services
Urban Health Services
Health services, public or private, in urban areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.
Financing, Government
Federal, state, or local government organized methods of financial assistance.
Developing Countries
Guidelines as Topic
A systematic statement of policy rules or principles. Guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by convening expert panels. The text may be cursive or in outline form but is generally a comprehensive guide to problems and approaches in any field of activity. For guidelines in the field of health care and clinical medicine, PRACTICE GUIDELINES AS TOPIC is available.
Reproductive Health Services
Family Health
The health status of the family as a unit including the impact of the health of one member of the family on the family as a unit and on individual family members; also, the impact of family organization or disorganization on the health status of its members.
Qualitative Research
Any type of research that employs nonnumeric information to explore individual or group characteristics, producing findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other quantitative means. (Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997)
United Nations
An international organization whose members include most of the sovereign nations of the world with headquarters in New York City. The primary objectives of the organization are to maintain peace and security and to achieve international cooperation in solving international economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian problems.
United States Dept. of Health and Human Services
A cabinet department in the Executive Branch of the United States Government concerned with administering those agencies and offices having programs pertaining to health and human services.
Health Services, Indigenous
Cohort Studies
Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.
Health Records, Personal
Longitudinal patient-maintained records of individual health history and tools that allow individual control of access.
Chronic Disease
Diseases which have one or more of the following characteristics: they are permanent, leave residual disability, are caused by nonreversible pathological alteration, require special training of the patient for rehabilitation, or may be expected to require a long period of supervision, observation, or care. (Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)
Research
Critical and exhaustive investigation or experimentation, having for its aim the discovery of new facts and their correct interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or laws in the light of newly discovered facts, or the practical application of such new or revised conclusions, theories, or laws. (Webster, 3d ed)
Public Health Surveillance
The ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data with the purpose of preventing or controlling disease or injury, or of identifying unusual events of public health importance, followed by the dissemination and use of information for public health action. (From Am J Prev Med 2011;41(6):636)
School Health Services
Preventive health services provided for students. It excludes college or university students.
Health Maintenance Organizations
Organized systems for providing comprehensive prepaid health care that have five basic attributes: (1) provide care in a defined geographic area; (2) provide or ensure delivery of an agreed-upon set of basic and supplemental health maintenance and treatment services; (3) provide care to a voluntarily enrolled group of persons; (4) require their enrollees to use the services of designated providers; and (5) receive reimbursement through a predetermined, fixed, periodic prepayment made by the enrollee without regard to the degree of services provided. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988)
Leadership
Environmental Exposure
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. Cost effectiveness compares alternative ways to achieve a specific set of results.
Australia
Allied Health Personnel
Health care workers specially trained and licensed to assist and support the work of health professionals. Often used synonymously with paramedical personnel, the term generally refers to all health care workers who perform tasks which must otherwise be performed by a physician or other health professional.
Adolescent Health Services
Organized services to provide health care to adolescents, ages ranging from 13 through 18 years.
Developed Countries
Cost of Illness
The personal cost of acute or chronic disease. The cost to the patient may be an economic, social, or psychological cost or personal loss to self, family, or immediate community. The cost of illness may be reflected in absenteeism, productivity, response to treatment, peace of mind, or QUALITY OF LIFE. It differs from HEALTH CARE COSTS, meaning the societal cost of providing services related to the delivery of health care, rather than personal impact on individuals.
Social Responsibility
Communicable Diseases
Communicable diseases, also known as infectious diseases, are medical conditions that result from the infection, transmission, or colonization of pathogenic microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, which can be spread from one host to another through various modes of transmission.
Social Class
A stratum of people with similar position and prestige; includes social stratification. Social class is measured by criteria such as education, occupation, and income.
Tissue and Organ Procurement
The administrative procedures involved with acquiring TISSUES or organs for TRANSPLANTATION through various programs, systems, or organizations. These procedures include obtaining consent from TISSUE DONORS and arranging for transportation of donated tissues and organs, after TISSUE HARVESTING, to HOSPITALS for processing and transplantation.
Residence Characteristics
Elements of residence that characterize a population. They are applicable in determining need for and utilization of health services.
Marketing of Health Services
Application of marketing principles and techniques to maximize the use of health care resources.
Human Rights
Community Mental Health Services
Prospective Studies
Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.
HIV Infections
Health Planning Councils
Organized groups serving in advisory capacities related to health planning activities.
Age Distribution
Organ Transplantation
Longitudinal Studies
Africa
I'm afraid there seems to be a misunderstanding - "Africa" is not a medical term and does not have a medical definition. Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, consisting of 54 countries with diverse cultures, peoples, languages, and landscapes. If you have any questions related to medical topics or definitions, I would be happy to help answer those for you!
International Agencies
Decision Making, Organizational
Comprehensive Health Care
Providing for the full range of personal health services for diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and rehabilitation of patients.
Mass Screening
Retrospective Studies
Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.
Demography
Organizational Case Studies
Descriptions and evaluations of specific health care organizations.
Treatment Outcome
Voluntary Health Agencies
Non-profit organizations concerned with various aspects of health, e.g., education, promotion, treatment, services, etc.
Health Fairs
Community health education events focused on prevention of disease and promotion of health through audiovisual exhibits.
Sex Distribution
Health Communication
The transfer of information from experts in the medical and public health fields to patients and the public. The study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health.
Health Food
Social Change
Disease Notification
Notification or reporting by a physician or other health care provider of the occurrence of specified contagious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV infections to designated public health agencies. The United States system of reporting notifiable diseases evolved from the Quarantine Act of 1878, which authorized the US Public Health Service to collect morbidity data on cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever; each state in the US has its own list of notifiable diseases and depends largely on reporting by the individual health care provider. (From Segen, Dictionary of Modern Medicine, 1992)
Universal Coverage
Health insurance coverage for all persons in a state or country, rather than for some subset of the population. It may extend to the unemployed as well as to the employed; to aliens as well as to citizens; for pre-existing conditions as well as for current illnesses; for mental as well as for physical conditions.
South Africa
A republic in southern Africa, the southernmost part of Africa. It has three capitals: Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial). Officially the Republic of South Africa since 1960, it was called the Union of South Africa 1910-1960.
Pilot Projects
Reproducibility of Results
The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results.
Ethnic Groups
Capacity Building
Models, Theoretical
Regression Analysis
Procedures for finding the mathematical function which best describes the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. In linear regression (see LINEAR MODELS) the relationship is constrained to be a straight line and LEAST-SQUARES ANALYSIS is used to determine the best fit. In logistic regression (see LOGISTIC MODELS) the dependent variable is qualitative rather than continuously variable and LIKELIHOOD FUNCTIONS are used to find the best relationship. In multiple regression, the dependent variable is considered to depend on more than a single independent variable.
Dental Health Services
Services designed to promote, maintain, or restore dental health.
Insurance Coverage
Generally refers to the amount of protection available and the kind of loss which would be paid for under an insurance contract with an insurer. (Slee & Slee, Health Care Terms, 2d ed)