UP NHM CHO key terms

The system of refrigerated storage and transport that keeps vaccines within their required temperature range from manufacture to the point of use, preserving potency.

A heat-sensitive label on a vaccine vial that changes colour cumulatively with heat exposure, helping health workers decide whether a vial may still be used.

A Government of India immunization drive to reach unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children and pregnant women in low-coverage districts through repeated intensified rounds.

The proportion of children aged 12 to 23 months who have received all vaccines scheduled in the national immunization programme before their first birthday.

The lowest public health facility, serving about 3,000 to 5,000 people, staffed mainly by an ANM and MPW, providing basic maternal, child and preventive services.

A rural public facility covering about 20,000 to 30,000 people, staffed by medical officers and paramedical workers, offering outpatient care, maternal-child services and referrals.

A 30-bed rural referral facility covering about 80,000 to 120,000 people, providing specialist outpatient and inpatient services including basic surgery and obstetrics.

Auxiliary Nurse Midwife; a female frontline health worker at the sub-centre who delivers maternal and child health services, immunization and basic curative care in the community.

Accredited Social Health Activist; a trained female community volunteer who links households to health services, promotes health behaviour and receives performance-based incentives.

The organised process of directing a patient from a lower-level facility to a higher-level one for services beyond its capacity, with feedback flowing back to the referring point.

An approach delivering a broad range of promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services close to communities, with community participation and intersectoral coordination.

An upgraded sub-centre or PHC delivering comprehensive primary care including non-communicable disease screening, mental health, oral and eye care, and essential medicines free of cost.

The conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age, including income, education, housing and environment, that shape health outcomes and inequities.

The absence of avoidable, unfair differences in health status between population groups, achieved by allocating resources according to need rather than equally.

Collaboration across sectors such as health, education, water supply and nutrition so that actions outside the health system support health goals.

The process of engaging community members and local groups to identify health problems, plan actions and take collective ownership of solutions.

A planned use of communication strategies and channels to promote specific health behaviours in a defined audience, based on formative research and audience segmentation.

Information, Education and Communication; the use of printed and audiovisual materials and activities to inform people and promote healthy practices.

Behaviour Change Communication; an interactive, audience-centred approach that goes beyond giving information to address motivations, skills and enabling environments for sustained behaviour change.

A behavioural theory explaining health action by perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers, plus cues to action and self-efficacy.

A staged model of behaviour change describing movement through pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance, with relapse possible at any stage.

A collaborative, person-centred counselling style that elicits and strengthens a person's own reasons for change, using open questions, affirmations, reflection and summarising.

A rapid newborn assessment at one and five minutes after birth scoring appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration, each 0 to 2, to guide resuscitation.

The basic package given to every newborn: warmth, immediate skin-to-skin contact, early breastfeeding, clean cord care, eye care and monitoring for danger signs.

Continuous skin-to-skin contact between a mother and a low-birth-weight or preterm baby, with exclusive breastfeeding and close follow-up, to maintain warmth and reduce mortality.

A birth weight of less than 2,500 grams regardless of gestational age, increasing the risk of hypothermia, infection, feeding difficulty and neonatal death.

Failure of a newborn to establish adequate breathing at birth, causing oxygen deprivation, and managed by prompt drying, stimulation and bag-and-mask ventilation.

Feeding an infant only breast milk, without water or other liquids or solids, from birth until six months of age, followed by complementary feeding with continued breastfeeding.

Introduction of safe, adequate solid and semi-solid foods alongside continued breastfeeding from six months of age, when breast milk alone no longer meets nutritional needs.

The package of check-ups, screening, supplementation and counselling a pregnant woman receives before delivery to protect her health and that of the fetus.

A pregnancy with factors such as young or advanced maternal age, previous complications, hypertension or multiple gestation that raise the chance of adverse maternal or fetal outcome.

A pregnancy disorder marked by new hypertension after 20 weeks with proteinuria or organ dysfunction, which can progress to seizures (eclampsia) and requires urgent referral.

A protocol that assesses a sick child for a combination of danger signs and common conditions, then assigns classification and treatment or referral in one visit.

Clinical warning features such as inability to feed, convulsions, lethargy, chest indrawing or severe dehydration that signal urgent referral or hospital care.

The rapid sorting of patients by urgency of need so that limited staff and resources are directed first to those at immediate risk of death or serious harm.

Measured body temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation, used to detect physiological deterioration and monitor response to treatment.

A tuberculosis strategy in which a trained observer watches the patient take each dose, combined with diagnosis and standardized multidrug regimens, to ensure adherence and cure.

Directly Observed Treatment Short-course; the internationally recommended tuberculosis control strategy built around case detection, supervised treatment, drug supply and monitoring.

Examination of a stained sputum sample under a microscope to detect acid-fast bacilli, a primary tool for diagnosing infectious pulmonary tuberculosis.

A disease that health workers are legally required to report to designated public health authorities so that surveillance and control measures can be initiated.

Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme; India's system for collecting and analysing disease data weekly from peripheral units to detect and respond to outbreaks early.

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

Health Management Information System; the routine reporting system through which public facilities submit service and indicator data monthly for monitoring programme performance.

A measurable variable, such as proportion of institutional deliveries, used to summarise and track a health programme's performance against a target or standard.

Checking collected health data for completeness, consistency and plausibility against source registers before use, to ensure that reported figures are reliable.

A patient's voluntary agreement to examination, treatment or participation in research after receiving adequate information about purpose, risks, benefits and alternatives.

The duty to keep a patient's health information private and share it only with those involved in care or as legally required.

A case in which medical evidence may be needed for legal proceedings, requiring the clinician to document findings carefully and inform the police as required.

Failure by a health worker to exercise the standard of care reasonably expected, resulting in harm, judged by the practice of an ordinary competent professional.

A method of solving problems in which quantities are compared by their units; equal ratios mean the two quantities increase or decrease together.

A technique that first finds the value of one unit and then multiplies to obtain the value for the required number of units.

A number expressed as a fraction of one hundred, used to compare proportions and to calculate rates such as coverage or prevalence.

A measure of the frequency of an event in a population over a stated period, calculated as events divided by the population at risk, often multiplied by a constant.

The proportion of a population that has a condition at a specified point or period in time, useful for estimating disease burden and planning services.

The number of new cases of a disease arising in a population during a defined period, reflecting the risk of developing the condition.

The ability of a test to correctly identify people who have the condition, calculated as true positives divided by all people with the disease.

The ability of a test to correctly identify people who do not have the condition, calculated as true negatives divided by all people without the disease.

The probability that a positive or negative test result is correct for a given patient, depending on test accuracy and the prevalence of the condition.