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H
| Hand-Rolled Cigarette | synonym for Roll-Your-Own |
| Hard-Core Smoker | current daily smoker with a weak or non-existent quitting history who expects never to quit smokingReference: Emery S, Gilpin EA, Ake C, Farkas AJ, Pierce JP. Characterizing and identifying “hard-core” smokers: implications for further reducing smoking prevalence. American Journal of Public Health 2000;90(3):387-394. |
| Hardening of Smoker Population | a hypothetical (and contested) construct denoting the selective quitting of the least addicted smokers in a population such that the remaining smokers are likely to find quitting extremely difficultReference: Warner KE, Burns DM. Hardening and the hard-core smoker: concepts, evidence and implications. Nicotine and Tobacco Research 2003;5(6):961-962. |
| Harm Reduction | sometimes controversial approach to substance use involving a policy, strategy or intervention that assumes the continuation of an unhealthy behaviour (e.g., smoking) and aspires to lower the risk of adverse consequences rather than eliminate the behaviour altogetherReference: deRuiter W, Faulkner G, Cairney J, Veldhuizen S. Characteristics of physically active smokers and implications for harm reduction. American Journal of Public Health 2008;98(5):925-931. |
| Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) | combination of the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) with Provincial Sales Tax (PST) into a single tax that applies to the sale of goods and services, including cigarettes, in effect since 1997 in New Brunswick, Newfoundland/Labrador and Nova Scotia, and set at 13% (5% GST + 8% PST) of the retail price (see also Taxation of Tobacco Products) |
| HBM | Health Belief Model |
| HC | Health Canada |
| HEAL | Healthy Eating Active Living |
| Health | in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being on the part of an individual or group, meaning not just absence of disease but also realization of aspirations, satisfaction of needs and ability to change or cope with the environment |
| Health Behaviour | the actions people undertake that influence their health status |
| Health Belief Model | behavioural theory addressing the individual’s perception of the severity of threat posed by a health problem, the benefits of avoiding the threat, and factors influencing the decision to actReference: Strecher VJ, Rosenstock IM. The Health Belief Model. In: Glanz K, Lewis FM, Rimer BK (eds). Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1997. |
| Health Benefit | improvement to personal, population or public health |
| Health Canada (HC) | Canada’s federal department of health which conducts initiatives to prevent and reduce tobacco use in Canada and is responsible for regulating the manufacture, sale, labeling and promotion of tobacco products http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ |
| Health Consequence | synonym for Health Effect |
| Health Determinant | see Determinant |
| Health Education | the process of informing people about ways to maintain and improve their health thereby enabling them to make healthy decisions |
| Health Effect | impact on health, normally used to describe deleterious rather than beneficial effects, e.g., the health effects of smoking (cf. Health Benefit) |
| Health Hazard | synonym for Health Risk |
| Health Impact | synonym for Health Effect |
| Health Informatics (HI) | a discipline that deals with the collection, storage, retrieval and communication of health-related data, information and knowledge |
| Health Information | facts conveyed to help people make decisions that will maintain and improve their physical and mental health, an important component of health education |
| Health Promotion | in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health, entailing certain prerequisites, e.g., peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system and social justice |
| Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) | Ontario legislation that specifies the organization and delivery of public health programs and services, including the mandate of local public health agencies to provide comprehensive tobacco control programs and servicesAvailable at: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90h07_e.htm; accessed Feb. 9, 2009. |
| Health Risk | (1) a condition (e.g., nicotine dependence), behaviour (e.g., smoking), substance (e.g., tobacco product), plant, animal or thing that has or is likely to have an adverse effect on the health of any person or population; (2) the degree to which something threatens health |
| Health Surveillance | see Surveillance |
| Health Warnings | textual and pictorial material, e.g., on cigarette packages, explaining some of the harmful effects of tobacco smoke, which in Canada since 2000 is required by federal law to include graphic health warnings, a statement about toxic emissions and information to help people quit smoking (see also Tobacco Products Information Regulations)Reference: Hammond D, Fong GT, Borland R, Cummings KM, McNeill AD, Driezen P. Text and graphic warnings on cigarette packages: findings from the international tobacco control four country study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2007;32(3):202-209. |
| Healthcare Cost Recovery Legislation | law that allows legal action against tobacco companies for expenses incurred by the healthcare system as a result of the illness and death caused by tobacco products |
| Healthcare Utilization | frequency and patterns of use of the healthcare system by individuals and groups and types of services used for specific purposes, e.g., use of cessation services by current smokers |
| Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) | a program sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion to foster healthy children, youth and communities, champion public health policy and raise public awareness http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/english/health/HEAL/default.asp |
| Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada | a national volunteer-based Canadian health charity with 10 provincial foundations leading the way in preventing heart disease and stroke through research, health promotion and advocacy http://www.heartandstroke.com/ |
| Heart Disease | see Coronary Heart Disease |
| Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI) | subset of questions in the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) for determining level of addiction to nicotine |
| Heavy Smoker | a current smoker who regularly smokes a pack of cigarettes or more every dayReference: Lubin JH, Caporaso NE. Cigarette smoking and lung cancer: modeling total exposure and intensity. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 2006;15(3):517-523. |
| Helpline | synonym for Quitline |
| HI | Health Informatics |
| Hierarchical Diffusion | in Diffusion of Innovation, a particular model of geographic diffusion that considers the spatial arrangement of adopters of a tobacco control strategy to be critical, e.g., the strategy might be adopted first by large cities and cascade down the urban hierarchy to smaller municipalities |
| High-Risk | individual or group especially vulnerable to smoking initiation, continuation or relapse, e.g., experimental smokers who do not rule out future smoking, current smokers with no intention of quitting or quitters with a history of unsuccessful quit attemptsReference: Sussman S, Dent CW. Five-year prospective prediction of self-initiated quitting of cigarette smoking of high-risk youth. Addictive Behaviors 2007;32(5):1094-1098. |
| High-Risk Strategy | clinical approach to tobacco control focusing efforts on high-risk individuals (e.g., heavy smokers with a history of unsuccessful quit attempts) rather than on the population at large (cf. Population Strategy)Reference: Last JM (ed.). A Dictionary of Epidemiology. Oxford University Press, New York, 2001. |
| Hookah | synonym for Water Pipe |
| Host | in the epidemiologic model of disease transmission, an organism that can become unhealthy from exposure to an agent of disease, e.g., a person who becomes sick from using tobacco products |
| HSI | Heaviness of Smoking Index |
| HST | Harmonized Sales Tax |
| Hubble Bubble | colloquial synonym for Water Pipe |
| Hydrogen Cyanide | poisonous compound found in tobacco smoke that is rapidly metabolized in the liver to thiocyanate and causes confusion, dizziness, weakness, irritation of eyes, nose and skin, gastrointestinal upsets, headaches, nausea, vomiting, rapid respiration and weight loss |
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The OTRU Glossary of Tobacco Control provides brief definitions of over 1,000 tobacco control terms, abbreviations and acronyms. Definitions are based on many sources including dictionaries, legislative texts, websites, reports, books, peer-reviewed journal articles and communications from tobacco control experts. A single definition often reflects material from more than one source.
While we have tried to be comprehensive in producing this resource, the language of tobacco control is constantly evolving and there may be relevant terms that are not listed or terms whose meanings may have changed.
Comments about the glossary or particular definitions are welcome and can be sent to lise_anglin@camh.net. For technical assistance, please contact sonja_johnston@camh.net