Public Health Assistant Practitioner (China) key terms
Public Health Assistant Practitioner (China) · Get comfortable with the vocabulary.
- Incidence
New events occurring among a defined population at risk during a specified observation interval or person-time.
- Prevalence
Existing cases in a specified population at a defined time or period, distinct from new-case frequency.
- Confounding
Distortion of an exposure-outcome comparison by a separate factor requiring an appropriate causal interpretation and analysis.
- Sensitivity
The proportion of people with the specified condition classified positive by a test under the evaluated conditions.
- Specificity
The proportion of people without the specified condition classified negative by a test under the evaluated conditions.
- Predictive value
The probability of the specified condition or its absence conditional on an observed test result in context.
- Exposure pathway
The route connecting a source through an environmental medium and contact to a potentially affected person or population.
- Multiple barriers
Complementary controls at different stages that reduce distinct hazards rather than depend entirely on a single protective step.
- Temperature inversion
An atmospheric temperature pattern that can suppress vertical mixing and contribute to accumulation of ground-level air pollutants.
- Hierarchy of controls
An ordered prevention approach favoring hazard elimination and source measures over dependence solely on individual protective equipment.
- Health surveillance
Planned observation of workers’ health findings that supports prevention and follow-up without replacing effective exposure control.
- Time-weighted exposure
An exposure average calculated over a stated interval that does not necessarily capture short-duration peak hazards.
- Limiting amino acid
The essential amino acid present in the lowest proportion relative to the selected reference requirement pattern.
- Preformed toxin
A harmful substance already present in food before consumption, potentially remaining hazardous after the producing organism is reduced.
- Reference intake
A population nutrition planning or assessment value that is not automatically a diagnostic threshold for every individual.
- Hazard
The intrinsic potential of an agent or circumstance to cause harm, distinct from the risk under a particular exposure.
- Uncertainty factor
A factor used in a specified risk assessment to address evidence limitations or extrapolation rather than a universal fixed constant.
- Biotransformation
Biological alteration of a compound that can facilitate elimination or generate a metabolite with different toxicological properties.
- Case definition
Explicit criteria for counting cases consistently in surveillance or investigation, distinct from every individual clinical diagnostic decision.
- Sentinel surveillance
Systematic collection at selected sites or groups to monitor trends without assuming complete enumeration of every population case.
- Epidemic curve
A display of cases by time that supports hypotheses about exposure and transmission without proving the source alone.
- Health equity
Attention to avoidable and unfair differences in health and access, including structural barriers affecting different population groups.
- Logic model
An explicit representation linking programme resources and activities to outputs and intended outcomes through stated assumptions.
- Lead-time bias
An apparent increase in survival measured from earlier diagnosis without necessarily delaying death or reducing population mortality.