Appendix D
Glossary
Administrative Data
Data collected as part of the administration of a specific program (e.g., Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).
Children’s Health
The extent to which individual children or groups of children are able or enabled to (a) develop and realize their potential; (b) satisfy their needs; and (c) develop the capacities that allow them to interact successfully with their biological, physical, and social environments.
Critical Periods
Refers to a time during which certain experiences or influences have a deterministic (positive or negative) affect. Although the terms “critical periods” and “sensitive periods” are often used interchangeably in the literature, there are relatively few, if any, critical periods outside of the biological arena. From a biological or molecular perspective, there can be several critical periods such as during gestational periods or with exposure to mutagens and other carcinogenic agents (see sensitive periods below).
Data Element
A specific data component (e.g., height, weight).
Data Linkage
The combination of data on specific individuals from two or more datasets.
Data System
A collection of two or more datasets integrated into one system. Multiple administrative or other datasets might be linked using unique identifiers or might be aggregated and then combined into a single system.
Dataset
Two or more data elements collected through a single mechanism, effort, or type of scientific investigation.
Development
The processes by which humans proceed through life in individual ways that lead to new and more complex forms and progressive growth in capacities and functions.
Dimensions
The multiple factors within a subdomain that are measurable; for example, within the physical functioning subdomain, dimensions might include mobility, growth, and age-specific activities.
Domains
The broad categories of health. For this report, we divide health into three domains: health conditions, functioning, and health potential.
Environments
The set of factors external to a child. For purposes of this report, these factors are organization as the social environment (including family, community, culture, and discrimination) and the physical environment (including air, food, and water as well as aspects of the larger environment such as the built environment).
Influences
The range of factors that can pose a risk to children’s health or serve in a health-protecting or -promoting capacity. Influences, therefore, refer to risk, protective, and promotional factors.
Measures
Indicators of health or health influences that can assess the aspects of each dimension in order to quantify the quality of health. Measures may be single items or composites of items. For example within the growth dimension, a child’s height and weight are periodically measured.
Population Health
Population health refers to the aggregate measures of health for individuals within a population as well as the distribution of these measures across the major subpopulations in the population. That is, population health is reflected both as average levels of health as well as the variability in those levels across the population.
Safety
Aspects of the environment that contribute to health, including the physical environment (i.e., absence of lead levels in paint, pesticides or pollutants in the ground water, etc.), social environment (i.e., low neighborhood crime rates, rates of risky behaviors either by the children or adults), and psychological environment (i.e., the perception of being in personal danger).
Sensitive Periods
Refers to a time when the child is especially receptive to certain kinds of environmental influences or experiences and the ideal time to provide or to avoid them. Though the term “critical and sensitive periods” is used in this report, there are relatively few critical periods (see critical periods above).
Subdomains
Based on a hierarchy, the subcategories that domains are divided into that contain various dimensions and indicators within them. For example, within the domain of functioning, subdomains include physical functioning, psychological functioning, and social functioning.
Well-being
Well-being is the sense of health and safety as appraised by the individual. Factors such as quality of life, fulfillment, and ability to contribute constructively to society and one’s own family are also important aspects of well-being. Aspects of well-being are incorporated in the domain of health termed “health potential” by the committee.
