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
- Contact CoveragePopulation Contact Reach, First-Contact Uptake
- A measure of the proportion of a target population that has received at least one contact with a specific service, an early coverage step.
- Coverage ErrorFrame Error, Coverage Bias
- A survey error arising when the sampling frame used does not fully or accurately represent the target population, excluding or wrongly including groups.
- Crude CoverageUnadjusted Coverage, Raw Coverage Rate
- A basic measure of the proportion of a target population receiving a service, without adjustment for its quality or timing, unlike effective coverage.
E
- Effective CoverageOutcome-Weighted Coverage, Effective Reach
- A measure of the proportion of a target population that both received an intervention and experienced the health gain it is intended to produce.
F
- Full Immunisation CoverageComplete Vaccination Coverage, Full Vaccination Rate
- A measure of the proportion of a target population who have received the complete recommended vaccination series according to a national schedule.
I
- Individual Patient SimulationIPS, Patient-Level Simulation, Individual-Level Simulation, Microsimulation, Patient-Level Microsimulation, Individual-Based Simulation, Individual Patient Modelling, Individual Patient Modeling
- Individual patient simulation is a modelling approach that generates separate patient histories under specified rules and aggregates their costs and health outcomes for a target population.
- Intervention CoverageIntervention Reach, Coverage of Intervention
- A measure of the proportion of a target population receiving a specific health intervention, a building block of the effective coverage cascade.
S
- Service CoverageCoverage Breadth, Service Reach
- The proportion of a target population that receives a specific needed healthcare service, a building block of overall health system performance.
- System CoverageCovered Population Share, Coverage Reach
- A general term for the extent to which a health system's services reach and benefit its target population, covering multiple coverage dimensions.
T
- Target PopulationTarget Group, Intended Population
- The group identified as the intended recipients of a treatment or intervention, based on clinical, demographic, or policy criteria.
- Transportability
- The degree to which causal effects estimated in one population can be validly generalised to apply to a different target population.
- Treated Population
- The subset of an eligible or target population who actually receive a given treatment within a specified period.
W
- Weighting DesignSurvey Weighting, Sampling Weight Design
- A study design element specifying how observations should be weighted to account for unequal sampling probabilities or non-response, representing the target population.