Glossary
| Admission | The formal process, using registration procedures, under which a personis accepted by a hospital or an area or district health service facility asan inpatient. | |
| Aetiologic fraction | A measure of the amount of disease associated with an exposure within apopulation. In a situation in which exposure to a given factor is believedto be a cause of a given disease, the population attributable fraction (orpopulation aetiologic fraction) is the proportion of the disease in thetotal population that can be attributed to exposure to the factor. | |
| Age-adjusted rate | Rate adjusted to take account of differences in age composition whenrates for different populations are compared. | |
| Age-specific rate | Rate for a specified age group. Both numerator and denominator refer tothe same age group. | |
| Ambulance attendance | A response by theambulance staff to a particular request for provision of care. Attendances are classified inseveral categories such as: cardiac, medical, surgical, trauma and routine attendance.Ambulance services mean services relating to the work of rendering first aidto, and the transport of, sick and injured persons. | |
| Ambulatory care sensitive conditions | Those for which hospitalisation is considered potentially avoidable through preventive care and early diseasemanagement, usually delivered through primary health care. | |
| Associated cause of death | See UNDERLYING cause of death. | |
| Contact | A person who has been in association with an infected person or acontaminated environment that may provide an opportunity to acquirethe infection. | |
| Confidence interval | The computed interval with a given probability (for example, 95 per cent) that thetrue value of a variable such as a rate, mean or proportion, is containedwithin the interval. | |
| Crude death rate | An estimate of the proportion of a population that dies in a specifiedperiod. It is calculated by dividing the number of deaths in a specifiedperiod by the number at risk during that period (typically per year). | |
| Day-only admission | A person who is admitted to hospital and leaves on the same calendarday. | |
| Employed persons | All civilians aged 15 years and over who worked for pay or profit orworked without pay in a family business or farm. | |
| Fertility rate | Number of live births in an area during a year divided by the mid-yearfemale population aged 15-44 in the same area in the same year. | |
| Fetal death | Delivery of a child who did not, at any time after delivery, breathe orshow any other evidence of life, such as a heartbeat. | |
| Hospital separation | or Hospitalisation - see SEPARATION | |
| Illicit drugs | The following drugs used for non-medicinal purposes: speed, cocaine,sleeping pills or tranquilisers, marijuana, analgesics, heroin, petrol sniffing,other inhalants, hallucinogens, designer drugs, and injecting of any illegaldrug. | |
| Incidence | The rate at which new cases of a disorder occur in the population: thatis, the number of new cases in a specified period, divided by thepopulation at risk of the disorder in that period. | |
| Infant death | The death of a child before its first birthday. | |
| Labour force | All persons aged 15 years and over who are employed and unemployed. | |
| Participation rate | The labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian populationaged 15 years and over. | |
| Life expectancy | The average number of years of life remaining to a person at a particularage. | |
| Live birth | The birth of a child who after delivery, breathes or shows any otherevidence of life, such as heartbeat. For calculation of perinatal deathrates, includes only infants weighing at least 400 grams at birth or, wherebirth-weight is unknown, of at least 20 weeks gestation. | |
| Neonatal death | Death within 28 days of birth of any child who after delivery, breathed orshowed any other evidence of life, such as a heartbeat. | |
| Notification | Certification in an approved form of a disease listed in the Schedule3 of Notifiable Diseases of the NSW Public Health Act 1991. In this report, notificationsconcern cases of communicable diseases reported by general practitioners, hospitals andpathology laboratories to the Director General of the NSW Department of Health. | |
| Patient presentation at emergency department | Occurs following the arrival of the patient at the emergency department and is the earliest occasion of the patient being registered clerically or triaged. The patient may be subsequently provided with aservice by a treating medical officer or nurse, and a provisional diagnosis is recorded. A'presentation' is equal to a 'visit' or an 'attendance' at the emergency department. | |
| Perinatal death | A fetal or neonatal death. | |
| Prevalence | The number of people with a disease at a given time (point prevalence)or in a specified period (period prevalence), divided by the number ofpeople at risk from that disease. | |
| Principal diagnosis | The first ICD-9 or ICD-10 coding variable reported on the hospital separationform. It means the final diagnosis that best accounts for inpatient care. | |
| Rate ratio | The ratio of two rates: for example, the rate of disease in one populationgroup divided by the rate in another population group. | |
| Scheduled medical condition | Medical conditions to be notified under the provisions of the NSW PublicHealth Act 1991. | |
| Separation | The formal process whereby an inpatient leaves a hospital or other areahealth service facility after completing an episode of care. For example,a discharge to home, discharge to another hospital or nursing home, ordeath. | |
| Standardised rate | see AGE-ADJUSTED RATE | |
| Underlying cause of death | The primary disease or injury causing the death. It is listed on a deathcertificate together with other diseases or injuries, which are classified as associated causes.These are all other conditions, diseases or injuries that were considered to have contributed tothe death. | |
| Unemployed | Persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed and who wereactively seeking work, or waiting to be called back to a job from whichthey had been stood down. | |
| Unemployment rate | The number of unemployed expressed as a percentage of the labour force(that is, employed and unemployed). |
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Copyright notice
This work is copyright NSW Department of Health, 2006. It may be reproduced in whole or in part, subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgement of the source. Commercial usage or sale is prohibited.
Suggested citation
Population Health Division. The health of the people of New South Wales - Report of the Chief Health Officer. Sydney: NSW Department of Health. Available at: www.health.nsw.gov.au/publichealth/chorep/. Accessed (insert date of access).
Produced by
Centre for Epidemiology and Research, Population Health Division, NSW Department of Health.
Last updated on 19 December 2008
