Child Health Services: Organized services to provide health care for children.Maternal-Child Health Centers: Facilities which administer the delivery of health care services to mothers and children.Maternal Health Services: Organized services to provide health care to expectant and nursing mothers.BulgariaHealth 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.Infant, Newborn: An infant during the first month after birth.Health Services: Services for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and the maintenance of health.Mental Health Services: Organized services to provide mental health care.Pregnancy: The status during which female mammals carry their developing young (EMBRYOS or FETUSES) in utero before birth, beginning from FERTILIZATION to BIRTH.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.Child Welfare: Organized efforts by communities or organizations to improve the health and well-being of the child.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)Health Status: The level of health of the individual, group, or population as subjectively assessed by the individual or by more objective measures.Delivery of Health Care: The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.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.Community Health Services: Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive health services provided for individuals in the community.Rural Health Services: Health services, public or private, in rural areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.Reproductive Health Services: Health care services related to human REPRODUCTION and diseases of the reproductive system. Services are provided to both sexes and usually by physicians in the medical or the surgical specialties such as REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE; ANDROLOGY; GYNECOLOGY; OBSTETRICS; and PERINATOLOGY.Health Policy: Decisions, usually developed by government policymakers, for determining present and future objectives pertaining to the health care system.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 Care Surveys: Statistical measures of utilization and other aspects of the provision of health care services including hospitalization and ambulatory care.Health Surveys: A systematic collection of factual data pertaining to health and disease in a human population within a given geographic area.Primary Health Care: Care which provides integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. (JAMA 1995;273(3):192)Health Promotion: Encouraging consumer behaviors most likely to optimize health potentials (physical and psychosocial) through health information, preventive programs, and access to medical care.Preventive Health Services: Services designed for HEALTH PROMOTION and prevention of disease.Quality of Health Care: The levels of excellence which characterize the health service or health care provided based on accepted standards of quality.Adolescent Health Services: Organized services to provide health care to adolescents, ages ranging from 13 through 18 years.Community Mental Health Services: Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive mental health services provided for individuals in the community.Insurance, Health: Insurance providing coverage of medical, surgical, or hospital care in general or for which there is no specific heading.Health Planning: Planning for needed health and/or welfare services and facilities.Patient Acceptance of Health Care: The seeking and acceptance by patients of health service.Mental Health: The state wherein the person is well adjusted.United StatesSocioeconomic Factors: Social and economic factors that characterize the individual or group within the social structure.Disabled Children: Children with mental or physical disabilities that interfere with usual activities of daily living and that may require accommodation or intervention.Attitude to Health: Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system.Health Services for the Aged: Services for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the aged and the maintenance of health in the elderly.Family Planning Services: Health care programs or services designed to assist individuals in the planning of family size. Various methods of CONTRACEPTION can be used to control the number and timing of childbirths.Health Services Administration: The organization and administration of health services dedicated to the delivery of health care.Occupational Health Services: Health services for employees, usually provided by the employer at the place of work.State Medicine: A system of medical care regulated, controlled and financed by the government, in which the government assumes responsibility for the health needs of the population.National Health Programs: Components of a national health care system which administer specific services, e.g., national health insurance.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.Health Expenditures: The amounts spent by individuals, groups, nations, or private or public organizations for total health care and/or its various components. These amounts may or may not be equivalent to the actual costs (HEALTH CARE COSTS) and may or may not be shared among the patient, insurers, and/or employers.Public Health Administration: Management of public health organizations or agencies.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)Urban Health Services: Health services, public or private, in urban areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.Questionnaires: Predetermined sets of questions used to collect data - clinical data, social status, occupational group, etc. The term is often applied to a self-completed survey instrument.Health: The state of the organism when it functions optimally without evidence of disease.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)Great BritainWomen's Health Services: Organized services to provide health care to women. It excludes maternal care services for which MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES is available.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.United States Public Health Service: A constituent organization of the DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES concerned with protecting and improving the health of the nation.Health Services, Indigenous: Health care provided to specific cultural or tribal peoples which incorporates local customs, beliefs, and taboos.Health Priorities: Preferentially rated health-related activities or functions to be used in establishing health planning goals. This may refer specifically to PL93-641.Home Care Services: Community health and NURSING SERVICES providing coordinated multiple services to the patient at the patient's homes. These home-care services are provided by a visiting nurse, home health agencies, HOSPITALS, or organized community groups using professional staff for care delivery. It differs from HOME NURSING which is provided by non-professionals.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.National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.): Component of the NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. It was initially established to investigate the broad aspects of human development as a means of understanding developmental disabilities, including mental retardation, and the events that occur during pregnancy. It now conducts and supports research on all stages of human development. It was established in 1962.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).Child Behavior: Any observable response or action of a child from 24 months through 12 years of age. For neonates or children younger than 24 months, INFANT BEHAVIOR is available.Poverty: A situation in which the level of living of an individual, family, or group is below the standard of the community. It is often related to a specific income level.World Health: The concept pertaining to the health status of inhabitants of the world.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.Parents: Persons functioning as natural, adoptive, or substitute parents. The heading includes the concept of parenthood as well as preparation for becoming a parent.Health Status Disparities: Variation in rates of disease occurrence and disabilities between population groups defined by socioeconomic characteristics such as age, ethnicity, economic resources, or gender and populations identified geographically or similar measures.Mental Disorders: Psychiatric illness or diseases manifested by breakdowns in the adaptational process expressed primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling, and behavior producing either distress or impairment of function.EnglandOral Health: The optimal state of the mouth and normal functioning of the organs of the mouth without evidence of disease.United States Indian Health Service: A division of the UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE that is responsible for the public health and the provision of medical services to NATIVE AMERICANS in the United States, primarily those residing on reservation lands.Health Care Rationing: Planning for the equitable allocation, apportionment, or distribution of available health resources.Attitude of Health Personnel: Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.Interviews as Topic: Conversations with an individual or individuals held in order to obtain information about their background and other personal biographical data, their attitudes and opinions, etc. It includes school admission or job interviews.Rural Health: The status of health in rural populations.Program Evaluation: Studies designed to assess the efficacy of programs. They may include the evaluation of cost-effectiveness, the extent to which objectives are met, or impact.Maternal Welfare: Organized efforts by communities or organizations to improve the health and well-being of the mother.Rural Population: The inhabitants of rural areas or of small towns classified as rural.Child Mortality: Number of deaths of children between one year of age to 12 years of age in a given population.Healthcare Disparities: Differences in access to or availability of medical facilities and services.Environmental Health: The science of controlling or modifying those conditions, influences, or forces surrounding man which relate to promoting, establishing, and maintaining health.Public Health Practice: The activities and endeavors of the public health services in a community on any level.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.Outcome Assessment (Health Care): Research aimed at assessing the quality and effectiveness of health care as measured by the attainment of a specified end result or outcome. Measures include parameters such as improved health, lowered morbidity or mortality, and improvement of abnormal states (such as elevated blood pressure).Pediatrics: A medical specialty concerned with maintaining health and providing medical care to children from birth to adolescence.Financing, Government: Federal, state, or local government organized methods of financial assistance.Urban Health: The status of health in urban populations.School Health Services: Preventive health services provided for students. It excludes college or university students.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.Dental Health Services: Services designed to promote, maintain, or restore dental health.Mothers: Female parents, human or animal.Health Resources: Available manpower, facilities, revenue, equipment, and supplies to produce requisite health care and services.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)Needs Assessment: Systematic identification of a population's needs or the assessment of individuals to determine the proper level of services needed.Health Facilities: Institutions which provide medical or health-related services.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.Occupational Health: The promotion and maintenance of physical and mental health in the work environment.Medicaid: Federal program, created by Public Law 89-97, Title XIX, a 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act, administered by the states, that provides health care benefits to indigent and medically indigent persons.Dental Care for Children: The giving of attention to the special dental needs of children, including the prevention of tooth diseases and instruction in dental hygiene and dental health. The dental care may include the services provided by dental specialists.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)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)Community Health Centers: Facilities which administer the delivery of health care services to people living in a community or neighborhood.Health Care Sector: Economic sector concerned with the provision, distribution, and consumption of health care services and related products.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.Private Sector: That distinct portion of the institutional, industrial, or economic structure of a country that is controlled or owned by non-governmental, private interests.Referral and Consultation: The practice of sending a patient to another program or practitioner for services or advice which the referring source is not prepared to provide.Public Sector: The area of a nation's economy that is tax-supported and under government control.Child Behavior Disorders: Disturbances considered to be pathological based on age and stage appropriateness, e.g., conduct disturbances and anaclitic depression. This concept does not include psychoneuroses, psychoses, or personality disorders with fixed patterns.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.Developing Countries: Countries in the process of change with economic growth, that is, an increase in production, per capita consumption, and income. The process of economic growth involves better utilization of natural and human resources, which results in a change in the social, political, and economic structures.Contract Services: Outside services provided to an institution under a formal financial agreement.Family Characteristics: Size and composition of the family.Catchment Area (Health): A geographic area defined and served by a health program or institution.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.Personal Health Services: Health care provided to individuals.Women's Health: The concept covering the physical and mental conditions of women.Infant Welfare: Organized efforts by communities or organizations to improve the health and well-being of infants.Reproductive Health: The physical condition of human reproductive systems.Urban Population: The inhabitants of a city or town, including metropolitan areas and suburban areas.Medically Uninsured: Individuals or groups with no or inadequate health insurance coverage. Those falling into this category usually comprise three primary groups: the medically indigent (MEDICAL INDIGENCY); those whose clinical condition makes them medically uninsurable; and the working uninsured.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.Politics: Activities concerned with governmental policies, functions, etc.Health Plan Implementation: Those actions designed to carry out recommendations pertaining to health plans or programs.Aid to Families with Dependent Children: Financial assistance provided by the government to indigent families with dependent children who meet certain requirements as defined by the Social Security Act, Title IV, in the U.S.Student Health Services: Health services for college and university students usually provided by the educational institution.Marketing of Health Services: Application of marketing principles and techniques to maximize the use of health care resources.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.Patient Satisfaction: The degree to which the individual regards the health care service or product or the manner in which it is delivered by the provider as useful, effective, or beneficial.Interinstitutional Relations: The interactions between representatives of institutions, agencies, or organizations.Program Development: The process of formulating, improving, and expanding educational, managerial, or service-oriented work plans (excluding computer program development).Eligibility Determination: Criteria to determine eligibility of patients for medical care programs and services.Emergency Medical Services: Services specifically designed, staffed, and equipped for the emergency care of patients.Policy Making: The decision process by which individuals, groups or institutions establish policies pertaining to plans, programs or procedures.Family Practice: A medical specialty concerned with the provision of continuing, comprehensive primary health care for the entire family.Financing, Organized: All organized methods of funding.Social Justice: An interactive process whereby members of a community are concerned for the equality and rights of all.Child Rearing: The training or bringing-up of children by parents or parent-substitutes. It is used also for child rearing practices in different societies, at different economic levels, in different ethnic groups, etc. It differs from PARENTING in that in child rearing the emphasis is on the act of training or bringing up the child and the interaction between the parent and child, while parenting emphasizes the responsibility and qualities of exemplary behavior of the parent.Longitudinal Studies: Studies in which variables relating to an individual or group of individuals are assessed over a period of time.State Government: The level of governmental organization and function below that of the national or country-wide government.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.Medical Assistance: Financing of medical care provided to public assistance recipients.IndiaOutcome and Process Assessment (Health Care): Evaluation procedures that focus on both the outcome or status (OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT) of the patient at the end of an episode of care - presence of symptoms, level of activity, and mortality; and the process (ASSESSMENT, PROCESS) - what is done for the patient diagnostically and therapeutically.Data Collection: Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.Australia: The smallest continent and an independent country, comprising six states and two territories. Its capital is Canberra.Cooperative Behavior: The interaction of two or more persons or organizations directed toward a common goal which is mutually beneficial. An act or instance of working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit, i.e., joint action. (From Random House Dictionary Unabridged, 2d ed)LondonFees and Charges: Amounts charged to the patient as payer for health care services.Child Nutrition Disorders: Disorders caused by nutritional imbalance, either overnutrition or undernutrition, occurring in children ages 2 to 12 years.Emergency Service, Hospital: Hospital department responsible for the administration and provision of immediate medical or surgical care to the emergency patient.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.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.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.Time Factors: Elements of limited time intervals, contributing to particular results or situations.Costs and Cost Analysis: Absolute, comparative, or differential costs pertaining to services, institutions, resources, etc., or the analysis and study of these costs.Health Literacy: Degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.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.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.Poverty Areas: City, urban, rural, or suburban areas which are characterized by severe economic deprivation and by accompanying physical and social decay.Quality Indicators, Health Care: Norms, criteria, standards, and other direct qualitative and quantitative measures used in determining the quality of health care.BrazilInfant Mortality: Postnatal deaths from BIRTH to 365 days after birth in a given population. Postneonatal mortality represents deaths between 28 days and 365 days after birth (as defined by National Center for Health Statistics). Neonatal mortality represents deaths from birth to 27 days after birth.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.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)