A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
A.I.D.S.: (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome): identified in 1979 and determined by opportunistic infections and the loss of immune function of cells. Infection is spread through biological liquids.
Abortion: termination of pregnancy of a non viable fetus, that is of a fetus unable to live outside the uterus. It is distinguished in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) or induced abortion (voluntary abortion).
Active population: employed, unemployed, people looking for a job and first job-seekers.
Activities of Daily Living (A.D.L.): 17 questions (established by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – OECD) to assess individual autonomy.
They measure the ability to perform activity and functions basic to daily living and are used to study disability. Three key dimensions of disability can be outlined:
- daily living functions, including personal care (washing, dressing, bathing or showering, eating);
- physic, mainly related to mobility and walking (walking, climbing up and down the stairs, picking up objects from the floor) and under worst condition means the confinement of an individual in a bed, chair or home;
- communication, including speech, sight and hearing. Istat defines disable an individual with severe problems in at least one dimension.
Acute care hospital beds: hospital beds in wards other than spinal units,
rehabilitation and functional rehabilitation, neuro-rehabilitation, long-term
and mental disorder.
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C
C.I.M.: Italian version of the International Classification of Diseases, based on recommendations issued by the World Health Organisation in the IX revision conference held in Geneva in 1975. It is the basic tool to code morbidity events.
Coastal waters (sea): marine water within 100 metres from the coastline.
Communicable disease: disease which can be either directly or indirectly transmitted. They are divided into five classes: diseases to be immediately reported because particularly interesting; high frequency diseases and/or requiring monitoring; diseases for which special reporting is required; diseases for which the general practitioner reporting should be sent to the Local Health Unit as well only in case of infectious focus; infectious diseases reported to the Local Health Unit and not included in above class.
Community: people living together not because of marriage, kinship, affinity and similar but due to common religious belief, to receive care and assistance, soldiers, prisoners and similar. The staff usually living in the community are considered permanent members of the community, unless having a separate household.
The main types of community are: schools (colleges, boarding-schools, seminaries); social care institutions (for mental and physic disabled, orphanages, homes for waifs
and strays, permanent holiday camps, poorhouses, rest homes for old people and disabled, therapeutic communities, free hostels, caring centres for immigrants and others);
public and private hospitals; prisons (for custody, to serve a sentence, for prevention, for custody of minors, school prisons, reformatories, prevention and training for minors); monasteries and nunneries, religious houses; barracks and similar for the armed forces and similar, owned by Government and Local Authorities; hotels, family hotels, inns and similar; merchant ships.
Computed Tomography Scanner (C.T.S.): a technique of making radiography using X-rays emitting a thin layer of radiation. It can be used on every area of the body
to detect early pathological conditions, owing to the high resolution of computers.
Current expenditure: expenditure for producing activities and income redistribution not aimed at production.
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D
Day hospital: daily hospitalisation in departments, wards and hospital facilities for diagnosis and/or care and/or rehabilitation. It has the following functional characteristics:
- it is a single or a series of planned hospitalisations;
- it is limited to a part of a day;
- it provides multiprofessional and more than one specialist action which differs from usual ambulatory services.
Death: a permanent cessation of all vital functions at any moment after birth.
Decease: bureaucratic language (see Death).
Degree: a title conferred by university on completion of a unified program of study of at least three years.
Diagnosis: medical act identifying a disease or morbidity condition from its signs, symptoms, using laboratory researches and other instruments.
Diagnosis Related Groups (D.R.G.): classification of hospital cases, mainly based on discharge main diagnosis, surgery and care provided during hospitalisation. D.R.G. is adopted to fund hospitals. This system was introduced in 1995 and is based on fees related to each D.R.G.
Disability: in the 1980 WHO classification (International Classification of Disease, Disability and Handicap, ICDH) it can be divided into the following three levels:
- impairment is “any physic or mental upset of body functions. It can
be anatomic, mental or physiological loss or disablement (a tissue,
an organ, a system or a single body function)”; - disability is “limited functional capabilities or their loss determined
by an impairment”; - handicap is “the disadvantage resulting from impairment or disability.
It represents the social and environmental effects of disability or
impairment”.
Disability free life expectancy at age x: mean number of years people reaching age x expected to live free from disability.
Discharge (hospital): discharge of a patient from a hospital after a period of in-patient care. It is the last contact with the hospital where the patient has been cured. The discharge day is recorded in the medical record.
Discharge (main diagnosis): main disease or morbidity condition treated during the hospitalisation of a patient. It is the disease or the morbidity condition which required most resources for cure, treatment and care.
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E
Economic activity: different resources (such as equipment, machinery, work, know-how and products) being used to produce specific goods and supply services.
Economic activity (classification Ateco ’91): producing units classified by their activity. The main aim being the production of macro-economic statistics to analyse the participation in economy of these units. The classification is structured in 874 categories grouped in 512 classes, 222 groups, 60 divisions, 17 sections and 16 sub-sections.
Employed: people aged 15 and over are included if:
- employed, though not working in the reference period (declared employed);
- not employed, but in the reference period, have worked (other employed individual).
Employment status: the status of an individual with reference to the labour market.
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F
Family nucleus: a couple living together (married or not) and/or connected as parent-child. Children are included in the parent family nucleus till he/she creates a new couple or becomes a parent, that is till he/she creates a new family nucleus. The notion of family nucleus is narrower than household, a household may comprise more than one family nucleus. It can be single member.
First-aid: first medical operating unit for urgent and unexpected emergencies.
Forest surface: forest area with plants and without plants.
Forest surface with plants: areas not smaller than 1/2 hectare, with wooden plants, trees and/or shrubs to produce wood and forest goods. The projection of grown plant foliage should not be less than 50% of surface and should affect indirectly climate and waters.
Forest surface without plants: required non-productive area (forest roads, fire barrier paths, wood stores), and small areas such as rocky areas, marshes, tree nurseries in forests for own use and dwellings for forest staff, related land and other areas of forest farms.
G
Gestation: period, usually called pregnancy, in which a pregnant woman has a fetus in her uterus.
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H
Health expectancy at age x: mean number of years people reaching age x expected to live in good health. People in good health were those who declared to be “good” or “very good” during the Istat survey on “Health status and use of health services”.
Hospital: any hospital, with all the wards, departments and services, independent or depending from a public, i.e. a Local Health Unit, or private body.
Hospital admission: the admittance of an in-patient in hospital.
Hospital bed: bed in hospitals, with medical staff, fitted for full time care of in-patients. Bed-places are in hospital wards or areas where medical care is continuously guaranteed.
Household: group of people living in the same house, and related or connected by marriage, kinship, affinity, adoption, guardianship or sentiment.
Households without nucleus: households without the basic unit, that is the family nucleus.
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I
International Classification of Diseases (I.C.D.): see C.I.M.
Illiterate: without primary school certificate (including people holding a special certificate having attended the third grade of primary school); people who can read or write; unable to read or write.
Induced abortion (voluntary abortion): the interruption of pregnancy performed by a specialist, with the intention to remove the products of conception. First-trimester abortions are to be performed at the woman’s request, in case pregnancy, birth and motherhood may affect the physical and mental health of the woman. Induced abortion can be performed after the first trimester if gestation and birth may jeopardise the woman’s life or if fetus has serious malformations or defects, or if the physical and mental health of the woman could be seriously affected.
Infant mortality: deaths of live births between birth and exact age one year; deaths before registration are included.
Infectious focus: one or more occurrences of the same disease in people from the same group or community (household, school, barracks, hospital, etc.) or exposed to the same site of infection.
In-patient admission: admission of a patient in a hospital. For each patient a medical record is created. Transfer from one ward to another of the same hospital and home-care are excluded.
In-patient care: admittance to hospital or other residential health facilities with professional medical care and health services providing doctors and nurses, diagnosis, care and rehabilitation of in-patients.
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J
Job seekers: people aged 15 or over are included if:
- their status is other than employed;
- have not worked in the reference period;
- looking for a job;
- have looked for a job at least once in the 30 days before the reference period;
- immediately available (within two weeks) for any job.
Junior secondary school certificate: certificate conferred on completion of junior secondary school to access senior secondary school.
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L
Labour force: employed and job seekers.
Life expectancy at age x: mean number of years people reaching age x expected to live.
Life expectancy at birth: the mean number of years a person expected to live since birth.
Live birth: the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of gestation, which after such expulsion or extraction, breathes or shows any of the evidence of life.
Local Health Unit (ASL): local unit providing health services to citizens. Each Local Health Unit covers a geographical area, usually corresponding to a province.
Long-term hospital beds: hospital beds in long-term wards.
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M
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (M.R.I.): diagnosis technique based on electromagnetic fields with wide wavelengths.
Marital status: status of individual with reference to marriage.
Migratory balance: registry enrolment surplus or deficit with reference to striking off due to migration abroad.
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N
National Health Service (SSN): functions, facilities and services to promote and safeguard mental and physic health of the whole population, regardless of social and individual status, and guaranteeing equal treatment of every citizen.
Natural balance: birth surplus or deficit with reference to deaths.
Non active population: non professional population, first job-seekers are not included.
Non professional population: people are included if:
- aged up to 15;
- first job-seekers;
- housewives, mainly looking after their family;
- students, mainly studying;
- retired people, who withdrew from employment having reached retirement age or for any other reason;
- surveyed people aged 15 and over not included in the four sections above;
- people serving the military service are included.
Non-labour force: housewives, students, retired people having not worked in the reference period and having not looked for a job as job seekers, or having looked for a job but with procedures different from those defined for labour force. They include also people aged up to 15, people unfit for the military service, conscript and conscience objectors serving alternate service.
Not bathing water being not sampled: the coastal tract where Prevention Local Authorities did not sample water or Regions did not transmit data to the Ministry of Environment.
Not bathing water due to insufficient information: the coastal tract where analyses of water made by Prevention Local Authorities do not suffice.
Not bathing water due to permanent pollution: the coastal tract where there are rivers, streams, ditches, channels, main sewers flowing into the sea, without considering if they are continuous or not, if they come from civil, industrial or agricultural plants. They are considered polluted (and not suitable for bathing) by definition, and water is not sampled.
Not bathing water not due to pollution: the coastal tract where there
are harbours, airports, military zones, protected areas where bathing is not allowed.
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P
Poor households and persons: a two-member household is poor when consumption is equal or below the average national consumption per head. For different size households a set of coefficients is used to calculate the “equivalent consumption”, comparable with that of a two-member household. All persons belonging to a poor household are considered poor.
Post-lauream diploma: a certificate issued by a post-degree specialist training school (2-5 years) and doctorate courses (3-4 years).
Poverty threshold: for a two-member household it is the average per capita consumption estimated from the Istat household budget survey.
Poverty: see Poor households and persons.
Pregnancy: the physiological status of a woman, from conception to delivery or expulsion of a fetus.
Present population: referred to a Municipality it includes those actually living in each Municipality (likewise for other geographical areas) and those present in the Municipality but officially resident in other Municipalities or abroad.
Primary school certificate: certificate conferred on completion of primary school or a type C popular school, to access junior secondary school.
Professional population: people aged 15 and over are included if employed or unemployed looking for a job.
Protected area: territory under special regulations to protect and manage physical, geological, geomorphologic and biologic characteristics having remarkable natural or environmental value. In this area productive activities not threatening above characteristics may be experimented and developed.
Public current expenditure: current expenditure of public administrations.
Public independent hospital: important hospitals or highly specialised hospitals. Besides university hospitals, the following hospitals are included if: they have three highly specialised departments; a functional centralised organisation based on departments for the services of a single highly specialised department. Public independent hospital is a public body with organisational, administrative, patrimonial, accounting, management and
technical autonomy. It has the same bodies of Local Health Units, as well as a managing director, a health manager and the council of doctors.
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Q
Qualification: any certificate whose legal importance is acknowledged by Government and achieved on completion of regular courses.
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R
Reference person: holder of the registry form (the head of the family in the past). Relations are defined with reference to him/her.
Registry of population: the recording of resident population. It is continuously updated through enrolment (births) from parents residing in the Municipality, and striking off due to death or movement to/from another Municipality or to/from abroad.
Rehabilitation hospital beds: hospital beds in rehabilitation and functional rehabilitation wards.
Resident population: referred to a Municipality it includes residents in the Municipality (likewise for other geographical areas). People temporarily living in another Municipality or abroad (for seasonal jobs or any other temporary reason) are still included in the official residents.
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S
School certificate: a title indicating school-leaving examinations in a primary (5 years) and junior secondary school (3 years)
- kindergarten;
- primary;
- junior secondary;
- senior secondary;
- post-secondary;
- university.
Senior secondary school certificate: a title conferred by a senior secondary school on completion of a unified program of study of four or five years. It allows enrolment to higher school courses.
Senior secondary school degree: it includes the senior secondary school degree and the vocational school certificate.
Spontaneous abortion (miscarriage): the non-voluntary termination of pregnancy due to specific pathologies; any expulsion or death of an embryo or fetus within 180 days’ gestation (25 weeks and 5 days).
Stillbirth: fetal death after 180 days’ gestation.
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U
Unemployed looking for a job: people who lost a job as employee and are actively looking for a new job, if they can accept it.
University diploma: a title conferred by university on completion of university diploma course (2 or 3 years).
University system: is divided into three levels:
- university diploma;
- university degree;
- post-graduate degree.
V
Vocational school certificate: certificate conferred on completion of a 2 or 3 year-course, it cannot be used to access higher education.