Health Equity Glossary

Allostatic load – The theory that the accumulated burden of chronic stress creates a common pathway to the onset and progression of many…

Broken Windows effect – The so-called Broken Windows theory has led to initiatives that try to reduce violence by restoring deteriorating neighborhoods, removing or…

Cultural competency – The ability of health care providers to deliver care and services that take into account the cultural needs of a…

Developmental origins of health and disease – From conception through infancy and early childhood, exposures to certain stresses can alter the trajectory of development in ways that…

Environmental injustice – The disproportionate burden of pollution and other harmful environmental exposures falling mainly on disadvantaged neighborhoods and people with less wealth,…

Health disparities – Differences in health status experienced by groups of people disadvantaged because of their race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, age,…
Health equity – An ideal envisioned by public health experts in which all people can achieve their best health without being disadvantaged by…
Health in all policies (HiAP) – This public health strategy emerged in Europe and is now gaining traction in the U.S. It calls upon political leaders…
Healthy People 2020 – Health People 2020 is a U.S. federal initiative to improve the nation’s health. Key for health care journalists, though, is…
Hispanic Community Health Study (SOL Study) – The Hispanic Community Health Study (also known as the SOL Study) is an epidemiological project to study health of Hispanic…

Implicit bias – Learned stereotypes and prejudices that operate automatically and unconsciously when interacting with others. Also referred to as unconscious bias. When…
Income inequality – Also known as the wealth gap, the divide between the rich and the poor has come to broadly define income…
Index of disparity – Used in statistical analysis. The index is developed based on using the usual categories of social determinations such as education or…
Individual behavior – One of the key factors in the social determinant of health, decisions that a person makes and how they act…

Jackson Heart Study – The Jackson Heart Study is a longitudinal project to study heart and stroke risk among Black adults; it has been…

Lead toxicity – Sustained exposure to lead can cause long-term health problems, most notably neurological damage. While no level of lead in the…
Lifestyle drift – Initiatives that set out to tackle health inequalities often pay lip service to the social determinants of health (quality education,…
Loneliness – Feeling alone can have both psychological and physical impacts, from causing aggression or social anxiety to sleep loss, changes in…

Maternal mortality rate – The number of women who die each year per every 100,000 live births. To classify as maternal-related, the death must…
Millennial – Members of this generation of young adults include those born between 1992 and 2000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there…
Moral injury – The manifestation of life events that are “extreme and unprecedented” that cross a moral line and can cause harm to…

Nutrigenomics – This up-and-coming field looks at how nutrients from food can impact how one’s individual genes are expressed. This field of…

Population health – A term used in the health assessment of an entire group of people. “Population” often refers to those in a…
Premature mortality – An alternative way to compare the health of different populations is to add up the potential years life lost (PYLL)…
Psychoneuroimmunology – Sometimes referred to as psychoendoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is the study of the interaction of the brain and the body. More…
Public health – Although sometimes used interchangeably with the term population health, “public health” is increasingly used to reference a narrower set of…

Reserve capacity – Higher social standing may help people build psychological resources, or a reserve capacity, to cope with stressors more resiliently so…
Resilience – The ability to recover or “bounce back” from difficult situations or challenging circumstances. Such capacity could be at an individual…
Rural – In general, “rural” refers to places outside of a city, or as HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration puts it:…

SES-health gradient – Health and longevity tend to decrease with poverty and social isolation, and increase with wealth and social status. This link…
Sexual orientation – Sometimes confused with gender identity, sexual orientation refers to one’s attraction to other people based on their sex. Heterosexuals are…
Social capital – Unlike traditional wealth, social capital is a nod to the relationship connections in one’s life that cannot be given financial…
Social determinants of health – The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age are mostly responsible for health inequalities—the unfair and…
Socioeconomic status (SES) – A person’s social class, or place in the hierarchy of power and self-determination can be quantified using measures of socioeconomic…
Structural determinants – Social determinants of health (income, education, social class, etc.) are sometimes referred to as “structural determinants” by those who want…

Targeting with universalism – Providing programs and services in a way that they will be available to everyone, including (and maybe especially) targeting higher-risk…
Telomeres – Social disadvantage appears to accelerate aging at the cellular level as indicated by the length of telomeres, the protective sections…
Trauma-informed care – A method of care or treatment that seeks to examine a person’s past history of trauma and focus on how…
Traumatic stress injury – Some military experts, psychiatrists and other advocates have been pushing for the renaming of post-traumatic stress disorder to post traumatic…

Uncontrollable risk factor – While there are some things people can do that can either increase or decrease their risk for disease, there are…
Underserved – Medically underserved populations are those who lack access to health care services such as low-income people, the homeless or other…
Upstream medicine – The U.S. health care system is really more of a “sick care” system. Recognizing this, some health professionals have started…
Urban – Cities in America have sprawled so much that researchers call them “metropolitan statistical areas,” or MSAs. Urban areas are less…

Weathering hypothesis – Some evidence suggests that greater exposure to adverse social conditions and physical environments produces a chronic stress response that over…
Wellness trust – Finding traditional health systems ineffective at addressing the social determinants of health, some communities are trying to establish public trust…
Whitehall Study – The Whitehall Study of British Civil Servants, started in 1967, famously showed that men in the lower employment grades were more…

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