Glossary

The documents we draw upon in the JSNA often contain medical jargon, acronyms and other unusual terms. This page lists the more common of those, along with a definition.

If you spot anything missing, please send us a suggestion.

Term Definition
A&E Accident and Emergency
AAACM All age all cause mortality
Alcohol attributable
/related admissions or deaths
Cases (admissions or deaths) where the underlying cause was a condition thought to be directly or indirectly attributable to excessive alcohol consumption. This takes into account the fact that for many conditions excessive alcohol consumption is known to be a contributory factor to some, but not all, cases.
Alcohol specific admissions or deaths These cases (admissions or deaths) are a subset of all alcohol attributable / related cases, and cover cases relating to conditions such as acute alcohol poisoning or alcoholic liver disease or alcoholic cardiomyopathy, where excessive alcohol consumption is a contributory factor in all cases.
APHO Association of Public Health Observatories
ASB Anti-social behaviour
ASD Autistic spectrum disorder
BMI Body mass index
CAMHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
CARATS Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare
CASH Clinics Contraceptive and sexual health clinics
CHD Coronary heart disease
Commissioning A continuous cycle of activities that contribute to the securing of services, including the specification of services to be delivered, contract negotiations, target setting, monitoring and managing performance.
Confidence Interval (CI) A 95% confidence interval is a range within which the true population would fall for 95 per cent of the times the sample survey was repeated. It depends on the amount of variation in the underlying population and the sample size, and is a standard way of expressing the statistical accuracy of a survey-based estimate.
COPD Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
CPR Child Protection Register
CSCI Commission for Social Care Inspection
CSIP Care Services Improvement Partnership
CVD Cardio-vascular disease
CVS Councils for Voluntary Services
DCLG Department for Communities and Local Government
Dental caries A disease that damages tooth structures, resulting in what is commonly called tooth decay or cavities, which are holes in the teeth.
DH / DoH Department of Health
DLA Disability Living Allowance
DPH Director of Public Health
DSR Directly Standardised Rate A rate that is calculated by applying the age specific rates of each age group to a standard population structure, in most cases the European population. This produces age standardised rates that the population would have if the age distribution were the same as the standard population. This method allows for comparison between areas which have different age structures
Dual Diagnosis People with substance misuse and psychiatric problems.
DWP Department of Work and Pensions
Elective admission A planned admission
Emergency admission An unplanned admission
Equalities impact assessment (EIA) An assessment that should be carried out on any policy, plan as a matter of course, to assess if the policy/plan is likely to discriminate against any equalities group.
FSA Food Standards Agency
GP General Practitioner
GUM Genito-urinary medicine
GVA Gross value added
HCAI Hospital Care Acquired Infections
HEA Health equity audit
HIV Human immunodeficiency virus
HNA Health needs assessment
HPA Health Protection Agency
HPV Human Papilloma Virus
ICD10 International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (10th version)
IDU Injecting drug user
IDTS Integrated Drug Treatment System
IHD Ischaemic heart disease
IMD Index of Multiple Deprivation – Combines a range of indicators into a single deprivation score, including social and economic measures and a measure for “Health Deprivation and Disability”. These measures may be used individually, or can be combined to rank areas relative to each other so that comparisons can be made.
Incidence The rate at which new cases of a disease occur.
IQ Intelligence Quotient
IVF In-vitro fertilisation
IVDU Intravenous Drug User
JSNA Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
Key Stage Educational assessment stage
KSI Killed or seriously injured
LA Local authority
LAA Local Area Agreement
LD Learning difficulties
LGBT Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
LLTI Limiting long-term illness
LSOA, SOA Lower level super output area – a new geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics
MIND National Association for Mental Health
MMR Measles, mumps and rubella (vaccine)
Morbidity A diseased state, disability, or poor health due to any cause
Mortality The condition of being mortal, or susceptible to death
Mosaic Socio-demographic segmentation tool based on lifestyle data. Mosaic aims to segment the population into a number of distinct groups where the members share similar characteristics.
MRSA Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus
MSOA Middle level super output area – a new geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics
MYE Mid year (population) estimates
NCMP National Child Measurement Programme
NDTMA National Drug Treatment Monitoring Agency
NEET Young people not in education, employment and training
Net migration Inward migration minus outward migration
NHS National Health Service
NI National indicators
NICE National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
NPT Neighbourhood Policing Team
NRT Nicotine Replacement Therapy
NSF National Service Framework
Obese Body mass index of over 30
ONS Office for National Statistics
Overweight Body mass index 25-30
PALS Patient Advice & Liaison Service
PANSI Projecting Adult Needs and Service Information System
PBC Practice-based commissioning
PCT Primary Care Trust
Place Survey National survey carried out every two years by every local authority in England and is run on behalf of the DCLG.
POPPI Projecting Older People Population Information
Prevalence The proportion of a population who have a disease.
PSA Public sector agreement
QOF Quality Outcomes Framework (indicator)
RNID Royal National Institute for Deaf People
RSL Registered social landlord
RTA Road traffic accident
SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
SEN Special educational needs
Spearhead/Spearhead Areas The Spearhead Areas are the fifth of all areas with the highest levels of deprivation in England
STI Sexually transmitted infection
TB Tuberculosis
VCS Voluntary and community sector
Vital Signs NHS/PCT performance management/measurement framework (including targets based on local and national priorities).
Vital Statistics Office for National Statistics publication of statistics relating to births and deaths.
Ward Electoral and administrative boundary.
WHO World Health Organisation
YOS Youth Offending Service
YPLL Years of potential life lost

This table was adapted from NHS Wiltshire’s JSNA.