BPS Core Textbooks Series
Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society
Immunosuppressive
Medication that reduces or suppresses the immune response, usually used to prevent rejection of transplanted organs.
Adherence
Involves active engagement in making health lifestyle choices, treatment related decisions and attendance at health-related appointments
Intentional nonadherence
Making an active decision no to adhere to medical advice, treatment or attend appointments. Intentional non adherence can also include partial adherence.
Unintentional nonadherence
Usually related to forgetting to take medication or attend appointments or not understanding the health advice or instructions provided by a healthcare professional.
Functional health literacy
Being able to read, understand and use health information to make health decisions about taking medication or attending appointments.
Interactive health literacy
The ability to actively engage in conversations and decision making with healthcare professionals, asking questions and applying health information to daily living.
Critical health literacy
To critical analyse health information, evaluate relevance of the information and engage in critical thinking about healthcare policies and advocate for change.
Multidimensional scale
A scale that measures more than one aspect of the topic being assessed.
Back translation
Text is translated into from the original language into the target language and translated back into the original language by another person.
Trans-specific care
Healthcare than is tailored to the needs of transgender people.
Lacking ability to consent
When an individual cannot understand information to make informed decisions about their own healthcare due to learning disability, age, severe mental health problems or other conditions and problems that impact on cognitive ability.
Partial doses
Not taking the full dose of a prescribed medication.
Polypharmacy
The use of multiple medications at the same time.
Ramadan
A month of fasting from dawn to sunset that occurs annually in the Muslim faith.
Antiretroviral therapy
Medication prescribed for an individual who has HIV, to suppress the immune system and prevent the development of AIDs.
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
A preventative medication taken by people who are HIV negative to reduce the risk of contracting HIV.
Stereotypic descriptors
Words or phrases that are used to generalise beliefs to all people within certain groups, usually based on ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation.