Dictionary
The Dictionary provides concise definitions of health economics terms, arranged alphabetically for quick reference. Use it to understand unfamiliar terminology or confirm the meaning of a specific term.
C
- Cardiac Rehabilitation
- A structured, supervised programme of exercise, education, and lifestyle counselling for patients recovering from a cardiac event, reducing future risk.
- Cardiovascular Epidemiology
- A branch of epidemiology studying the distribution and determinants of cardiovascular disease, including major modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors.
- Cardiovascular Prevention
- Interventions reducing cardiovascular disease incidence by modifying risk factors, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking, spanning public health and clinical measures.
- Cause-Specific Survival
- The probability of surviving without dying from a specific cause of interest, treating deaths from other causes as censoring rather than a competing risk.
- Chronic Disease Epidemiology
- A branch of epidemiology studying the distribution, risk factors, and natural history of long-lasting, non-communicable conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
- Classification Methods
- Statistical and machine learning techniques assigning individuals or observations into predefined categories based on their characteristics, such as risk level.
- Community Rating
- A method setting premiums that charges all enrollees within a community the same rate, or within narrow limits, regardless of individual risk.
- Confounding by Indication
- Confounding in pharmacoepidemiology arising when the reason for prescribing a treatment is itself linked to a patient's underlying risk of the outcome studied.
- Consolidation Therapy
- A treatment given after successful induction therapy has reduced disease burden, intended to eliminate remaining disease and reduce relapse risk.
- Constant Hazard
- A survival pattern where the instantaneous risk of an event stays the same at every point in time, matching an exponential distribution.
- Cost-of-Illness StudyCOI Study
- A cost-of-illness study is a descriptive economic analysis that identifies, measures and values the healthcare resource use, patient and caregiver costs, productivity losses and other economic consequences attributable to a disease, injury or risk factor in a defined population and period.
- Cream Skimming
- A practice where an insurer or provider selectively attracts healthier, lower-cost enrollees while avoiding sicker ones, undermining risk pooling.
- Cumulative Hazard
- The total accumulated risk of an event by a given point in time, found by integrating the instantaneous hazard rate up to that point.
- Cumulative Incidence
- The proportion of an initially disease-free population that develops a specific outcome over a defined follow-up period, a measure of average risk.
- Cure Fraction
- The proportion of a population modelled as having no residual risk of the disease-specific event after successful treatment, effectively behaving as cured.
- Cure Fraction Model
- A survival model separating a population into a cured subgroup facing only background mortality and an uncured subgroup remaining at risk of the disease event.
- Cure Model
- A survival model assuming a defined proportion of a population will never experience the event of interest, distinguishing this cured group from those still at risk.
D
- Deep Vein Thrombosis
- A condition in which a blood clot forms within a deep vein, usually the leg, risking travel to the lungs as a pulmonary embolism.
- Delayed Care
- A coping strategy in which a household postpones seeking needed healthcare due to cost concerns, risking a worsening condition.
- Demographic Adjustment
- A risk adjustment method predicting expected costs based on basic characteristics, such as age and sex, without detailed clinical diagnosis information.
- Dependent Censoring
- A survival analysis situation in which the reason for censoring is related to a participant's underlying risk of the event, violating standard assumptions.
- Deprescribing
- The planned, supervised process of reducing or stopping a medication no longer beneficial or causing harm, managing polypharmacy and related risk.
- Diabetes Screening
- Testing conducted to identify people with undiagnosed diabetes or at high risk, typically targeting populations with known risk factors.
- Diabetic Neuropathy
- A diabetes complication involving nerve damage, most commonly in the feet and legs, risking pain, numbness, and foot ulcers.
- Diagnostic Analytics
- The application of data analysis techniques to support diagnostic decision-making, from statistical risk prediction models to machine learning algorithms trained on clinical data.
- Digital Evidence Framework
- A structured methodology determining the type and quality of evidence required to evaluate a digital health technology, calibrated to its risk and complexity.
- Do Not Do
- A formal recommendation identifying a practice or treatment that should no longer be used, evidence indicating insufficient benefit relative to cost or risk.
- Drug-Drug Interaction
- An alteration in a drug's effect caused by another medication present at the same time, increasing or decreasing effect or adverse risk.
- Dynamic Transmission Model
- An epidemiological model representing how infection risk for a susceptible individual depends on current population prevalence, capturing feedback such as herd immunity.
E
- Economic Burden
- The total cost imposed on a health system, individuals, or society by a specific disease, injury, or risk factor.
- Effect Measure Modification
- A situation where an exposure-outcome association's magnitude differs by which effect measure is used, such as relative risk versus risk difference.
- Environmental Health Policy
- Government policy addressing health risks from environmental exposures, such as air pollution or contaminated water, covering regulatory standards and remediation.
- Ethics Committee
- A body responsible for reviewing the ethical acceptability of proposed research or clinical practices, evaluating risk, merit, and adherence to principles.
- Excess Hazard
- The additional death risk attributable specifically to the disease studied, the difference between total observed hazard and the background hazard in a comparable population.
- Excess Mortality
- The additional death risk attributable to a specific condition, the difference between an affected population's observed mortality and that of a comparable unaffected group.
- Exponential Distribution
- A probability distribution characterised by a constant hazard rate over time, used to model event timing when risk is assumed not to change.
- Extended Cost-EffectivenessECEA
- A form of economic evaluation that extends standard cost-effectiveness analysis by incorporating financial risk protection and the distribution of costs and benefits by income.
F
- Frailty Model
- A survival model incorporating an unobserved random effect, called frailty, to represent risk heterogeneity not captured by observed covariates.
- Free Rider Problem in Insurance
- The tendency for healthy individuals to skip buying insurance while relying on emergency care or others' willingness to fund risk pools.
- Full Capitation
- A capitation arrangement in which a provider assumes complete financial risk for essentially all a patient's healthcare costs, unlike partial capitation.
- Fully Insured Plan
- An arrangement where an employer purchases coverage from an insurer that assumes the financial risk for claims, unlike a self-insured plan.
G
- Genetic Screening
- The systematic testing of individuals or populations for genetic variants associated with disease risk, to identify who may benefit from targeted prevention or treatment.
- Genetic Testing
- Laboratory analysis of an individual's DNA to identify genetic variants associated with disease risk, diagnosis, or treatment response.
- Genomic Analytics
- The application of data analysis to genomic and genetic data, identifying disease risk factors and guiding treatment selection.
- Genomic Data
- Information derived from an individual's genetic material, such as gene sequences or variants, used to study disease risk or treatment response.
- Genomic Medicine
- An approach to healthcare incorporating an individual's genomic information into clinical decision-making, spanning diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment selection.
- Global Burden of DiseaseGBD
- A research programme systematically quantifying the health loss caused by diseases, injuries, and risk factors across countries and time, using disability-adjusted life years.
- Global Payment
- A comprehensive payment covering all or nearly all of a patient's healthcare needs over a defined period, placing substantial financial risk on the provider.
H
- Hazard Function
- A function describing the instantaneous risk of an event at a given point in time, conditional on having survived to that point.
- Hazard RatioHR
- A measure comparing the instantaneous risk of an event in one group relative to another, commonly estimated using a Cox model.