CHAPTER 1 Glossary

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Glossary

Accountability: The willingness to be answerable for

consequences of actions and choices.
Chronic diseases: Diseases of long duration, such as
heart disease or diabetes.
Cohort: A group of persons sharing a particular statistical or demographic characteristic.
External locus of control: Perception that events
in your life occur by chance or because of actions
outside your control.
Gender: Roles, behaviors, and characteristics that
society associates with males and females.

Homeostasis: Maintaining equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially those maintained

by physiological processes.
Infectious diseases: Infectious or communicable
diseases, caused by a biological agent (e.g. virus,
bacterium, or parasite) that can be spread directly or
indirectly from one living thing to another.
Infirmity: Physical or mental weakness.
Internal locus of control: Perception that you control
and are responsible for events in your life.
Pandemic: An infection that spreads continentally, or
even globally.

Gene: The basic physical and functional units of

heredity that carry information for developing the
proteins that determine the characteristics of specific
organisms. When genes are altered so that the
proteins cannot carry out their normal functions,
genetic disorders can result.

Reliable data: Data can be considered broadly reliable if the same results (or ones that are broadly
similar) are found by a different researcher asking
the same questions to the same (or statistically similar) groups/individuals.

Genome: The complete set of genetic material of an

organism.

Responsibility: A sense of ownership of actions and

choices.

Health: Soundness of body or mind; freedom from

disease or ailment; to have ones health; to lose
ones health.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): A

respiratory disease in humans caused by the SARS
corona virus (SARS-CoV) and resulting in a death
rate of almost 10 percent.

Holistic: Emphasizing the importance of the whole

and the interdependence of its parts.

Sex: The biological and physical characteristics that

define an individual as either female or male; sexual
consumation in loving relationships.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Glossary CHAPTER 1

Sickle cell disease: Disease in which sickle-shaped

red blood cells block the flow of oxygen-rich blood.
Tay-Sachs disease: Fatal genetic disorder that destroys the nervous system in children. It primarily
affects people of Eastern Europe Jewish ancestry.
Valid research: Research that produces results correctly inferred or deduced from a premise. It presents a valid conclusion.
Wellness: An approach to health care that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging vital life.
Years of potential life lost: Estimates of the average
number of years a person would have lived, had
they not died prematurely.