Community Health Priorities: A Resource for Oregon in Action

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Intervention: A public health program intended to improve the health of a specific population or the overall population. The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors. Interventions can be used to create change in different settings, including: communities, worksites, schools, health care organizations, faith-based organizations or at home. Interventions may be most effective when they include multiple settings.

Market Justice: Health care, like other social, economic and political resources or opportunities in the United States, competes for consumers in the marketplace. Market justice distributes health care based on individual resources and choices, not a collective or community responsibility. Market justice is based on principles of individualism, voluntary behavior and self-interest.

Mental Health: A term used to describe either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined.

Nursing: Profession concerned with the provision of services essential to the maintenance and restoration of health by attending the needs of sick persons.

Nutrition: A science that examines the relationship between diet and health. Dietitians are health professionals who specialize in this area of study, and are trained to provide safe, evidence-based dietary advice and interventions.

Obesity: Since the mid-seventies, the prevalence of overweight adults and children has increased sharply. These increasing rates raise concern because of their implications for Americans’ health. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of many diseases and health conditions, and is considered one of the top public health issues today.

Oral Health: Improvements in the oral health of the population in the United States have been much heralded in recent years. However, these gains have eluded many of the most vulnerable people – those for whom public health personnel often have special concern – in the United States and other countries. For such individuals, living with oral pain and disfigurement means a lack of health that interferes with the opportunity to learn and obtain meaningful employment.

Physical Activity: Healthy diets and regular, adequate physical activity are major factors in the promotion and maintenance of good health throughout the entire life course. Unhealthy diets and physical inactivity are two of the main risk factors for raised blood pressure, raised blood glucose, abnormal blood lipids, obesity, and for the major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes.

Population Health: An approach to health that aims to improve the health of the entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups.

Prevalence: A measure of the burden of a health condition in a population; generally the number or proportion of cases of the health condition at a specified time point or period. Prevalence is affected by both the incidence and the duration of the health condition in a population.

Prevention: Anticipatory action taken to prevent the occurrence of an adverse health event or to minimize its effects after it has occurred. Prevention is fundamental to the field of public health and differentiates it from the field of medicine, which largely focuses on treatment.

Preventive Care: A set of measures taken in advance of symptoms to prevent illness or injury. This type of care is best exemplified by routine physical examinations and immunizations. The emphasis is on preventing illnesses before they occur.

Public Health Mission: To fulfill society's interest in assuring conditions in which people can make choices to be healthy in their communities. Public health carries out its mission through organized, interdisciplinary efforts that help prevent and treat the physical, mental and environmental health concerns of communities and populations.

Public Hygiene: Includes public behaviors individuals can take to improve their personal health and wellness. Topics include public transportation, food preparation and public washroom use. These are steps individuals can take themselves. Examples would include avoiding crowded subways during the flu season, using gloves when touching handrails and opening doors in public malls, as well as eating at clean restaurants.

Race/Ethnicity: Race and ethnicity are social, not biological constructs, referring to social groups often sharing cultural heritage and ancestry. Race and ethnicity are not valid biological or genetic categories.

Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Persistent differences in health indicators by race and ethnicity across multiple categories (chronic disease, communicable disease, intentional and unintentional injuries and maternal and child health indicators). (Also see "Health Disparity.")

Rate: A mathematical expression for the relation between the numerator (number of deaths, diseases, disabilities, services, etc.) and denominator (population at risk), together with specifications of time. Rates make possible a comparison of the number of health conditions between populations and at different times.

Root Causes (Also referred to as “Fundamental Causes” or “Upstream Causes”): Root causes are primary causes of health problems that underlie the more obvious causes. Social problems are often root causes that result in health inequalities through complex pathways. For example, racism is a root cause because it results in income inequality, lack of power, residential and occupational segregation, and stress in marginalized groups. These things in turn cause things like inadequate health care, working in dangerous environments, living in cramped conditions where infections spread easily, smoking, and the inability to afford nutritious food. These things, in turn, are related to a host of health problems like injury, infectious and chronic disease, and mental illness. While addressing root causes will not eliminate disease and death, it will reduce health disparities between populations.

Social Justice/Equity: Social justice is the equitable distribution of social, economic and political resources, opportunities, and responsibilities and their consequences. The Social Justice Framework claims there is marginalization based on race, class, gender, and other social classifications that underlie the inequitable distribution of social justice. This unequal distribution of resources and opportunities is manifested through inequitable access and exposure to social determinants of health.

Statistical Significance: When quantitative differences found between populations are labeled as statistically significant, it means the differences are considered highly likely to be real and are not due to mere coincidence (random error). For example, if the diabetes rate for Hispanics is higher than the rate for other racial/ethnic groups and those differences are statistically significant, it means the rates probably reflect true disparities between groups.

Systems Change: The process of improving the capacity of the public health system to work with many sectors to improve the health status of all people in a community.

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