CM17.1-6 | Health Care of the Community — Glossary

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana — see 'Ayushman Bharat — PMJAY' above.

1978 WHO/UNICEF international conference declaration that defined Primary Health Care and called for 'Health for All by the year 2000'; endorsed by 134 nations.

Accredited Social Health Activist — community health worker under NRHM, one per 1,000 rural population, who links households to health services and promotes preventive and promotive care.

Health and Wellness Centres — upgraded Sub-Centres and PHCs under Ayushman Bharat providing comprehensive primary care: expanded medicines list, basic diagnostics, telemedicine, and NCD screening; supply-side primary care reform.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana — government health insurance providing Rs 5 lakh/family/year coverage for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation for economically vulnerable families; demand-side financing reform to reduce OOP.

Rational patient behaviour of skipping lower-tier facilities (Sub-Centre, PHC, CHC) due to perceived poor quality or missing services, and going directly to district hospitals or private facilities — leading to overcrowded tertiary facilities and increased OOP expenditure.

A group of people sharing a common geography, culture, occupation, or interest who interact over time and are amenable to collective health interventions.

The systematic, epidemiological process of describing a community's health status, identifying its priority health problems, and determining interventions — analogous to clinical diagnosis applied at population scale.

The health status of a defined population as a whole, shaped by biological, behavioural, environmental, and socioeconomic determinants operating at the population level.

Specialist-care facility serving 80,000–1,20,000 population, with 4 mandatory specialists (surgeon, physician, gynaecologist, paediatrician), 30 beds, OT, and blood storage; designated as First Referral Unit (FRU) under NRHM.

Continued population growth after TFR reaches replacement level, caused by the large cohort of young people already in or entering reproductive age from previous high-fertility periods.

A CHC or equivalent facility designated to provide Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEmOC) and blood transfusion services 24×7, serving as the mandatory referral endpoint for obstetric emergencies from Sub-Centres and PHCs.

Selective PHC strategy proposed by Walsh and Warren (1979): Growth monitoring, ORS, Breastfeeding, Immunisation, Female education, Food supplementation, Family planning — a pragmatic subset of comprehensive PHC for resource-constrained settings.

Health Management Information System — India's national system for routine collection, aggregation, and reporting of health service data from PHC level upward.

Number of deaths of infants aged under 1 year per 1,000 live births in a given year; the most sensitive single indicator of community health status in developing countries.

One of the five PHC principles; recognition that health outcomes require action across multiple government sectors (health, agriculture, education, water, sanitation, housing) working collaboratively.

Indian Public Health Standards — normative standards issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare specifying minimum infrastructure, staffing, equipment, and service norms for each tier of the public health delivery system.

Number of maternal deaths (from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes) per 100,000 live births; reflects quality of obstetric and antenatal care.

Eight international development targets adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, to be achieved by 2015; health-relevant MDGs include MDG 4 (child mortality), MDG 5 (maternal health), and MDG 6 (HIV/AIDS, malaria).

India's intensified immunisation catch-up programme launched in 2014 targeting unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children in districts with low immunisation coverage.

Multipurpose Health Worker (Male) / Health Assistant Male — community health worker at Sub-Centre responsible for environmental sanitation, malaria surveillance, communicable disease notification, and vector control.

National Family Health Survey — periodic large-scale household survey providing state- and district-level data on fertility, mortality, nutrition, and healthcare utilisation in India.

Direct payments made by households at the point of care, not covered by prepayment or insurance; India's OOP is ~47–50% of total health expenditure — a primary driver of catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment.

Priority-setting framework in community diagnosis: Propriety, Economics, Acceptability, Resources, Legality — five criteria that must all be met for an intervention to be feasible and appropriate.

Operational checklist used to test whether a proposed community health intervention is Proper, Economically viable, Acceptable, Resource-available, and Legal.

Specific protection against identified diseases or risk factors, e.g. immunisation, vector control, antenatal screening.

Essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods, made universally accessible to individuals and families through their full participation at a cost the community and country can afford.

Doctor-led facility serving 20,000–30,000 (plains) or 12,000–20,000 (tribal/hilly) population, with 6 inpatient beds, OPD, laboratory, and the first referral level above Sub-Centres.

Health care aimed at improving general wellbeing and quality of life in the absence of specific disease threat, e.g. nutrition education, sanitation improvement, physical activity promotion.

TFR of approximately 2.1, at which each generation exactly replaces itself; below replacement does not mean immediate population decline due to demographic momentum.

The most peripheral unit of India's public health delivery system, staffed by ANM and MPW, serving 3,000–5,000 (plains) or 1,000–3,000 (tribal/hilly) population; first contact for MCH, immunisation, and family planning.

17 global goals adopted by the UN in 2015 to be achieved by 2030; SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) covers maternal mortality, child mortality, communicable diseases, and Universal Health Coverage.

Average number of children a woman would bear if she lived through all her reproductive years and experienced current age-specific fertility rates; replacement level is 2.1.

Ensuring that all people and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship; SDG 3.8 target; operationalised in India through Ayushman Bharat.

Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committee — grassroots community body under the National Rural Health Mission responsible for village-level health planning and accountability.

Six functional components defined by WHO (2007) that any health system must have: service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, medical products/vaccines/technologies, health financing, and leadership/governance.