HANDICAP A disadvantage for a given individual resulting from an impairment or a disability that limits or prevents the fulfilment of a role that is normal (depending on age, sex, and social and cultural factors) for that individual.
HAWTHORNE EFFECT The effect upon the person being studied (usually positive or beneficial) of simply being under study. This knowledge can influence the behaviour of the persons under study. This effect can be used in a study design, e.g. action research. The name derives from work studies carried out in the Western Electric Plant, Hawthorne, Illinois, 1949.
HCNM: see Health Care Near Miss
HEALTH A state of optimal physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WONCA modified WHO definition which talks about "complete . . . wellbeing").
HEALTH BEHAVIOUR The way the individual combines knowledge, practice: and attitudes to influence health. It can be positive, thus preserving or even promoting good health, or negative, causing deterioration in the health of the individual or population.
HEALTH CARE Assessment, health maintenance, therapy, education, promotion of health, prevention of health problems, and related activities, provided by qualified professionals, to improve or maintain health status. See also SELF CARE.
HEALTH CARE EVALUATION Control of quality, see also MEDICAL AUDIT.
HEALTH CARE NEAR MISS HCNM: a situation in which an event or omission or a sequence or events or omissionsfails to develop further wheter or not as a result of compensating action thus preventing injury to the patient
HEALTH CARE PROCEDURES (Syn: medical procedures) Activities directed at, or performed on an individual with the object of improving health or relieving a health problem or injury, or making a diagnosis. Some kind of method and systematic application is involved.
HEALTH CARE PROVIDER A qualified person who renders health care services. Besides the primary physician, other health care providers include qualified graduates (professionals and paraprofessionals) of disciplines other than medicine, who also render health care. These include, for example, dentists, pharmacists, physician assistants, physiotherapists, nurse practitioners, graduate nurses, public health nurses, psychologists, and other persons who are involved in health maintenance.
HEALTH CARE SYSTEM The organizational structure through which health care is provided. See also HEALTH SERVICES.
HEALTH CARE TEAM A group of health care providers, who may represent several disciplines, and ancillary staff, working co-operatively to provide health care.
HEALTH DIMENSION A theoretical component of health such as physical or mental health.
HEALTH EDUCATION The process by which patients or groups of people learn how to prevent health problems and preserve or promote health. It can be a personal activity, as when the doctor tells a patient about the relationship between his symptoms and his life-style, and it can be impersonal through television or other media to everybody and not only to the individuals for whom the information is relevant.
HEALTH EQUITY: A systematic review of the equality of health provision.
HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMMES.Programmes initiated by PCGs to target specific health needs of their population.
HEALTH INDEX The health of a population expressed by a numerical figure, which can be composed of infant mortality, sickness leave, consumption of medicine, mortality rates, disease frequencies and other health indicators or vital statistical information.
HEALTH INDICATOR A recorded variable which gives important overall information about the health of a given population. Examples are infant mortality rates, incidence of notifiable diseases, absentee days.
HEALTH INEQUALITIES: The gap between the health of different population groups, such as better off and more deprived communities, or people with different ethnic backgrounds.
HEALTH OUTCOME MEASURES Measurement instruments to assess the health status, functioning, well-being, and/or health related quality of life of persons. Most instruments are standardized and validated research tools, but a few can be used in daily practice. HEALTH OUTCOME MEASURES can be generic or disease-specific. Most measures require the assessment by the patient. Examples of generic instruments are: COOP/WONCA charts, the DukeUNC Health Profile (DUHP), the Duke Health Profile (DUKE), the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) and the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36). Examples of disease specific measures are: the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale (AIMS) and the Functional Living Index: Cancer (FLIC). See also FUNCTIONAL STATUS INDEX, HEALTH STATUS INDEX, COMPOSITE SCALE.
HEALTH PROBLEM See PROBLEM.
HEALTH PROMOTION The process of enabling people to exert control over, and to improve, their health.
HEALTH PROTECTION: The Health Protection Unit/Team is the local team of the Health Unit Protection Agency (HPA) that exists to prevent and reduce the impact on human health of the consequences of infectious diseases, chemical and radiation hazards, and major emergencies.
HEALTH SERVICE RESEARCH The study of all aspects of the health care system in order to understand its influence on need, demand, cost, outcome, etc. Analysis is often divided up into:1. Structure: analysis of resources, facilities, training and manpower. 2. Process: analysis of where, by whom and what is provided. 3. Outcome: analysis of the results for the patients, to what degree they benefit from the intervention. 4. Output: analysis of the number of patients treated as inpatients and as outpatients, number of staff, etc.
HEALTH SERVICES The services which are delivered by health care providers or others under their responsibility, to maintain, promote or restore the health of a patient or the population which is served by the service.
HEALTH STATISTICS All data which describe aspects of health in a population. See also VITAL STATISTICS.
HEALTH STATUS INDEX See HEALTH OUTCOME MEASURES, FUNCTIONAL STATUS INDEX.
HEALTH STATUS The defined well-being of a person in terms of physical, mental, and social condition . or function. See also CLINICAL STATUS, FUNCTIONAL STATUS, HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE.
HEALTH SURVEY A survey which provides information about health matters in a population.
HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE Functional status, perceptions of well-being, and life satisfaction which are related to a person's health. See also CLINICAL STATUS, FUNCTIONAL STATUS, HEALTH STATUS.
HIERARCHICAL The characteristic of entities being arranged in a graded series. The ICPC is organized . on the basis of three digits, alpha numerical rubrics which are defined by chapter and components. More precisely defined elements from five digit categories can be lumped together to the three digit level, and elements from a three digit level can be split into a four or five digit level.
HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: see Avon CME Alliance newsletter #2
HINDSIGHT BIAS: Once something happens you over estimate the extent you could have predicted it
HOSPITAL PRACTICE A practice conducted within the confines of a hospital. The source of patients, method of reimbursement and relationships with ancillary staff are extremely variable, and should be defined for each specific instance.
HOUSEHOLD A person or group of persons occupying a dwelling place:1 . one person household, i.e. a person living alone in a room, a suite of rooms, or a housing unit; 2. a multiperson household, i.e. a group of two or more persons who combine to occupy the whole or part of a housing unit. The group may be composed of a family or of unrelated persons, or both. They will normally eat their main meal together.
HYPOTHESIS An idea based on observation or reflection which predicts certain relations, structures or occurrences. A HYPOTHESIS is a specified construement of reality that should be tested on empirical data to verify or falsify the HYPOTHESIS. See NULL HYPOTHESIS.