Pancyprian Health Education key terms

The process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health, through combined action on individuals, communities, environments and policy rather than through health education alone.

Planned learning activities that give people the knowledge, attitudes and skills to protect and improve their own health and that of their community, usually delivered through structured programmes.

A 1986 international statement that set out five action areas for health promotion: healthy public policy, supportive environments, community action, personal skills and reorientation of health services.

A planning framework that first diagnoses predisposing, enabling and reinforcing factors in a population, then designs and evaluates an intervention, and finally assesses its implementation and outcomes.

A behavioural model describing movement through precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance, with relapse possible, used to tailor advice to a person's readiness to change.

A model explaining preventive behaviour by a person's perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and barriers, cues to action and self-efficacy regarding a health threat.

A person's confidence in their own ability to carry out a specific behaviour successfully, even when faced with obstacles; a strong predictor of whether the behaviour is attempted and maintained.

Any action taken by a person that affects their health, whether protective such as physical activity or risky such as smoking, and which is shaped by knowledge, beliefs, social norms and environment.

The process by which individuals and communities gain the confidence, skills and resources to influence decisions and conditions that affect their health, shifting control from professionals to the people concerned.

The range of personal, social, economic and environmental factors that influence health status, including income, education, housing, employment, physical environment, biology and access to services.

Differences in health status between groups that are avoidable, unfair and unjust, arising from unequal distribution of power, money and resources rather than from biological variation or free choice.

The absence of avoidable or remediable differences in health among groups, achieved when everyone has a fair opportunity to attain their full health potential and no one is disadvantaged.

The number of new cases of a disease arising in a defined population during a specified period, usually expressed as a rate per 1,000 or 100,000 person-years at risk.

The proportion of a defined population that has a disease or condition at a given point in time (point prevalence) or during a stated period (period prevalence).

The proportion of a defined population that becomes ill during a limited outbreak or after a specific exposure, calculated as cases divided by the population at risk.

The ratio of observed deaths in a study population to the deaths expected if that population had the age-specific death rates of a reference population, multiplied by 100.

The proportion of people who truly have a condition who are correctly identified as positive by a test; a highly sensitive test produces few false negatives.

The proportion of people who do not have a condition who are correctly identified as negative by a test; a highly specific test produces few false positives.

The probability that a person with a positive test result actually has the condition, which depends on test sensitivity and specificity and on how common the condition is in the tested population.

Distortion of the estimated effect of an exposure on an outcome by a third factor that is associated with both, and that is not on the causal pathway between them.

A systematic error that arises when the people included in a study, or the groups compared, differ from the target population in ways that are related to both exposure and outcome.

The structured plan used to answer a research question, such as cross-sectional, case-control, cohort or randomised controlled designs, each with different strengths for measuring association and causation.

A systematic method for identifying the health problems of a population, the services available and the gap between them, so that resources can be planned and prioritised fairly.

A health system arrangement in which all people receive the health services they need, of sufficient quality, without suffering financial hardship when paying for them.

First-contact, continuous, comprehensive and coordinated care delivered close to where people live and work, forming the entry point to the wider health system and emphasising prevention and community involvement.

The six components used to describe and assess a health system: service delivery, health workforce, health information, access to essential medicines, financing, and leadership and governance.

A standard set of criteria, covering clinical features, time, place and person, used to decide consistently whether a person should be counted as a case in surveillance or in an outbreak.

A disease that doctors and laboratories are legally required to report to public health authorities, enabling monitoring, rapid response and planning of prevention measures.

The continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data, with timely dissemination of findings to those who need them for prevention and control action.

A structured response to an unusual increase in cases that verifies the diagnosis, confirms the excess, defines cases, generates hypotheses, tests them and implements control measures.

Indirect protection of unvaccinated people that arises when a sufficiently high proportion of a population is immune, so that chains of transmission are broken and spread is limited.

The proportion of a target population that has received a specified vaccine dose or schedule by a given age, used to judge programme performance and population protection.

The uninterrupted series of refrigerated storage and transport steps that keeps vaccines within their required temperature range from manufacture to administration, preserving potency.

Delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of services, influenced by confidence in vaccines and providers, convenience of access, and complacency about disease risk.

A modifiable behaviour such as tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, unhealthy diet or physical inactivity that raises the likelihood of non-communicable disease and can be changed through prevention.

A chronic condition that is not transmitted between people, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease, usually with a long duration and slow progression.

The systematic testing of apparently healthy people to identify those who may have a condition at an early stage, so that treatment can be offered before symptoms appear.

A short, structured conversation, often delivered in primary care, that raises awareness of a risky behaviour and encourages change, commonly used for alcohol, smoking and weight counselling.

A person-centred counselling style that helps someone explore and resolve ambivalence about changing behaviour, using open questions, reflective listening and affirmation rather than advice-giving.

The ability to obtain, read, understand and use health information and services in order to make informed decisions and take appropriate action for one's own and others' health.

The skills needed to find, judge, understand and apply health information from digital sources, including assessing the reliability of online content and using digital services safely.

An overabundance of information, both accurate and false, that spreads rapidly during a health event and makes it hard for people to find trustworthy guidance and act on it.

The planned exchange of information about health hazards, aimed at helping people understand risk and make informed decisions, while building trust and addressing uncertainty and emotion.

The use of communication strategies and channels to inform and influence individual and community decisions that improve health, including campaigns, mass media and interpersonal approaches.

The application of commercial marketing principles, such as audience segmentation and the marketing mix, to design programmes that promote voluntary behaviour change for social benefit.

The active involvement of community members in identifying problems, planning, delivering and evaluating services and interventions that affect their health and wellbeing.

A health promotion strategy that works within everyday places such as schools, workplaces, hospitals and cities, changing policies and environments rather than targeting individuals in isolation.

Government decisions across sectors such as transport, taxation, housing and education that are designed to improve population health and reduce health inequity, with explicit consideration of health effects.

The routine health care and screening offered to a woman during pregnancy to detect and manage complications, promote healthy behaviour and prepare for birth and parenthood.

The number of maternal deaths during a given period per 100,000 live births in the same period, reflecting the risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes.

Feeding an infant only breast milk, with no other food or liquid including water, for the first six months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding with complementary foods.

The health needs of people aged roughly 10 to 19, including pubertal development, mental health, sexual and reproductive health, injury risk and the formation of lifelong behaviours.

A state of wellbeing in which a person can cope with normal stresses of life, work productively and contribute to the community, not merely the absence of mental disorder.

Practical and emotional help offered to individuals and communities affected by crisis or illness, aimed at restoring coping capacity, social connection and dignity without necessarily treating a disorder.

A mark of social disapproval that devalues a person or group, often linked to illness, and that leads to discrimination, delayed help-seeking and poorer mental and physical health.

A regulatory or advisory maximum concentration of a hazard in workplace air, averaged over a stated reference period, to which most workers may be exposed without harmful effect.

Devices worn or used by a worker, such as gloves, masks, goggles or hearing protection, to reduce exposure to hazards, regarded as the last line of defence in the hierarchy of controls.

The branch of public health concerned with the physical, chemical and biological factors in air, water, soil, food and housing that affect human health, and with controlling them.

A structured process of identifying hazards, estimating the likelihood and severity of harm, and deciding on controls and priorities for action in a workplace, environment or health programme.