Kuwait Board Family Medicine key terms

An approach that treats patients as partners, exploring their ideas, concerns and expectations and tailoring decisions to their values, culture and circumstances rather than to the disease alone.

The sustained relationship between a patient and a clinician or team over time, covering informational, management and relational continuity. It improves trust, adherence and coordination, especially for chronic illness and multimorbidity.

A collaborative process in which clinician and patient discuss options, benefits, harms and uncertainties, then agree on a plan consistent with the patient's informed preferences. It is central to screening and chronic disease choices.

A directive, patient-centred counselling style that strengthens intrinsic motivation by exploring ambivalence and eliciting the patient's own reasons for change, using open questions, affirmation, reflection and summarising.

A framework describing readiness to change behaviour in stages: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance and possible relapse. Interventions are matched to the person's current stage rather than assumed.

A short, structured conversation, often 5 to 15 minutes, giving feedback on risk, clear advice and referral options. It is used for alcohol misuse, smoking and other lifestyle risks in primary care.

The coexistence of two or more chronic conditions in one person. It complicates guideline-based care, increases treatment burden and polypharmacy, and requires prioritisation of goals rather than single-disease protocols.

The concurrent use of multiple medicines, often defined as five or more. It raises risks of interactions and adverse effects, so regular structured medication review against goals of care is required.

The planned, supervised withdrawal or dose reduction of medicines whose harms now outweigh benefits, such as in frailty or terminal illness, using a stepwise review with monitoring for withdrawal effects.

A state of reduced physiological reserve and increased vulnerability to stressors, often identified by unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slow gait and low activity. It predicts falls, hospitalisation and mortality.

A multidimensional, multidisciplinary evaluation of an older person's medical, functional, cognitive, psychological and social needs, leading to a coordinated care plan. It improves outcomes when linked to follow-up.

Explicitly agreed priorities for a patient's treatment, ranging from curative to comfort-focused, based on prognosis, values and preferences. They guide escalation decisions, prescribing and referral.

A documented clinical decision, made with the patient or family, that cardiopulmonary resuscitation should not be attempted because it would be unlikely to succeed or would cause unacceptable burden. It does not limit other care.

A patient's voluntary agreement to an investigation or treatment after receiving adequate information about its nature, purpose, risks, benefits and alternatives, and having capacity to decide.

The ability to understand relevant information, retain it, weigh it in the balance and communicate a choice. Capacity is task-specific and assessed clinically, not assumed from diagnosis or age.

The duty to protect personal health information from unauthorised disclosure, with limited exceptions such as serious risk to others or legal obligation. Breach requires minimum necessary disclosure and documentation.

The professional duty to recognise and respond to signs of abuse, neglect or exploitation in children, following local referral pathways and sharing information appropriately to protect the child.

Expected ages at which children achieve gross motor, fine motor, language and social skills. Persistent delay in one or more domains warrants assessment for hearing, vision, developmental or neurological problems.

The nationally recommended timing and sequence of vaccines for children and adults. Adherence depends on tracking, catch-up planning and addressing vaccine hesitancy with clear, balanced information.

The planned number and timing of pregnancy visits, including booking assessment, screening tests, anomaly scanning and monitoring for pre-eclampsia and anaemia, adapted to individual risk.

A pregnancy disorder of new hypertension after 20 weeks with proteinuria or other organ dysfunction. It threatens mother and fetus and requires urgent assessment, monitoring and timely delivery planning.

Glucose intolerance first recognised during pregnancy, usually detected by oral glucose tolerance testing. It increases risks of macrosomia, pre-eclampsia and later type 2 diabetes, and needs diet, monitoring and sometimes insulin.

Excessive bleeding after childbirth, commonly defined as more than 500 mL after vaginal birth or 1000 mL after caesarean. It is an obstetric emergency requiring uterine massage, uterotonics and escalation.

A structured primary survey of Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability and Exposure used to assess acutely unwell patients, treating life threats as they are found before moving on.

The rapid sorting of patients by urgency so that care is prioritised by clinical need rather than arrival order, using validated scales and reassessment when condition or waiting time changes.

Life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated response to infection. Early recognition, cultures, prompt antibiotics and fluid resuscitation within the first hour improve survival.

Giving patients clear advice on expected course, warning signs and when and how to seek help, plus arranging follow-up. It manages diagnostic uncertainty in primary and urgent care.

A symptom or sign suggesting serious underlying disease, such as cancer or cord compression, that mandates urgent investigation or referral rather than routine management.

Pain in the lumbar region, usually non-specific and self-limiting. Most cases need reassurance and activity; red flags, radicular features and psychosocial factors guide investigation and referral.

A degenerative joint disease with cartilage loss, pain, stiffness and reduced function, common in knees, hips and hands. Management centres on exercise, weight loss, analgesia and joint replacement when severe.

A chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin disease with dry, itchy, eczematous lesions, often starting in childhood. Treatment uses emollients, topical corticosteroids and trigger avoidance, with escalation for severe disease.

A harmful or unintended response to a medicine at normal doses. It may be predictable (dose-related) or unpredictable (allergic or idiosyncratic) and should be documented and reported.

A pre-diabetic state with elevated two-hour glucose on oral glucose tolerance testing but below diabetes thresholds. It signals high risk of progression and warrants lifestyle intervention and periodic retesting.

Validated instruments applied to defined populations to detect unrecognised disease or risk, such as questionnaires or laboratory tests. They must be accurate, acceptable and linked to effective treatment.

Conditions a screening programme should meet: an important problem, accepted and accurate test, effective early treatment, adequate resources and a favourable balance of benefits and harms.

Detection of a condition that would never have caused symptoms or harm in the person's lifetime, leading to unnecessary treatment and anxiety. It is a key harm weighed in screening decisions.

The number of patients who must receive an intervention for one additional person to benefit, calculated as the reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction. It communicates effect size clearly.

The number of patients treated for one additional person to experience an adverse outcome, the reciprocal of the absolute risk increase. It balances benefits against harms in clinical decisions.

A three-item alcohol screening questionnaire scoring consumption frequency, quantity and binge drinking. A positive score prompts brief intervention and fuller assessment for alcohol use disorder.

Potentially traumatic events in childhood such as abuse, neglect or household dysfunction, associated with later mental and physical illness. Identification supports trauma-informed care and safeguarding responses.

The deliberate organisation of patient care activities among providers and settings, including referral, information sharing and follow-up, to reduce fragmentation and duplication.

A structured comparison of a patient's current medicines with the prescribed list at transitions of care, resolving discrepancies to prevent omissions, duplications and dosing errors.

A quality improvement cycle comparing current practice with agreed standards, implementing change and re-auditing to close the loop. It differs from research because it does not test new hypotheses.

A small-scale iterative improvement method: plan a change, test it, study the results and act on what was learned. Repeated cycles adapt changes to local context before wider spread.

A hierarchy ranking study designs by susceptibility to bias, from systematic reviews of randomised trials at the top to expert opinion at the bottom, used alongside guideline appraisal.

A study allocating participants randomly to intervention or control to balance known and unknown confounders, allowing causal inference about the intervention's effect.

Analysis of trial participants in the groups to which they were randomised, regardless of adherence. It preserves randomisation and gives a conservative estimate of real-world effectiveness.