| Bias | Preconceived opinion or inclination that is not rigorously based on reason, experience or evidence (though it may have roots in these things); can be positive, negative or both; occurs on a spectrum from implicit (or unconscious) to explicit (or consciously endorsed) |
| Culture | Values, beliefs, systems of language, communication, and practices that a group of people and that can be used to define them as a collective; also includes the material objects that are common to the group or society |
| Disability | “Impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions; an impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations; complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives” (WHO) |
| Discrimination | Unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on characteristics such as race, gender, age or sexual orientation (APA) |
| Ethnicity | Groups (e.g., Fijian, or Sioux, etc.) that share a common identity-based ancestry, language, or culture; often based on religion, beliefs, and customs as well as memories of migration or colonization (Cornell & Hartmann) |
| Gender | Range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, femininity and masculinity; depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex, sex-based social structures (i.e., gender roles), or gender identity. |
| Gender Identity | A socially and personally constructed identity that can be associated with masculinity, femininity, androgyny, any combination of these, or altogether different conceptions of gender |
| Gender-neutral pronouns | Third-person plural (e.g., ‘they’ is now widely accepted as a gender-neutral alternative) |
| Immigration status | Refers to the way in which a person is present in a country; everyone has an immigration status; examples in the U.S. include citizens (by birth or naturalization), legal permanent or conditional residents, non-immigrants (present on temporary visas, such as student visas) and undocumented immigrants |
| Mass incarceration | Extremely high rate of incarceration in the U.S. for both adults and youth, disproportionately impacting Black adults and youth |
| Mental health | Emotional, psychological, and social well-being; affect how we think, feel, and act; helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices |
| Monolithic | Intractably indivisible and uniform; in this context, refers to the tendency to perceive all members of another cultural or religious group (especially an unfamiliar group) as sharing the same values, beliefs, and practices, despite all such groups having significant intra-group variation |
| Nationality | Status of belonging to a particular nation whether by birth or naturalization |
| Poverty | State or condition in which a person or community lacks the resources to meet basic and essential needs for a minimum standard of living; below an income threshold set by the federal government in the U.S. |
| Prisoners | People deprived of liberty and kept under involuntary restraint, confinement, or custody; especially those on trial or in prison; a vulnerable group accorded additional protections under federal research regulations (OHRP, 2021) |
| Race | Grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by a society; importantly, race is a social, not a biological construction, and a person’s racial grouping will vary between countries and societies |
| Refugee | “Person who has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious harm” (including human rights violations and persecution); the risks to their safety and life were so great that they felt they had no choice but to leave and seek safety outside their country because their own government cannot or will not protect them from those dangers; refugees have a right to international protection (Amnesty International, 2021) |
| Sex | “The male, female, or intersex division of a species, especially as differentiated with reference to the reproductive functions”, including “the sum of the structural and functional differences by which male, female, and intersex organisms are distinguished, or the phenomena or behavior dependent on these differences” (Thesaurus.com) |
| Sexuality | Capacity for sexual feelings |
| Sexual behavior | Manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality |
| Sexual orientation | “An enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender; generally subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, while asexuality (the lack of sexual attraction to others) is sometimes identified as the fourth category” (Wikipedia) |
| Shame | In the healthcare context, more accurately termed “medical shaming”; process by which patients are judged by healthcare professionals to be more responsible for their own situation (including their health, social and economic status) and less deserving of health and healthcare than the “ideal” patient (Serani, 2019) |
| Socioeconomic status | “Social standing or class of an individual or group”; “often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation” (APA, 2021) |
| Stereotype | Fixed, overgeneralized and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing; often widely held and applied to whole groups of people. |
| Stigma | “Powerful social process characterized by labeling, stereotyping, and separation, leading to loss of social status and discrimination, all occurring in the context of power”; in the context of healthcare, stigma can be related to living with a specific disease or health condition and is often associated with judgment or blame regarding the condition; a barrier to healthcare (Nyblade et al., 2019) |
| Substance use | Use of drugs or alcohol, and includes substances such as cigarettes, illicit drugs, prescription drugs, inhalants and solvents; distinguished from a substance use disorder |
| Substance use disorder | Persistent use of substances despite substantial harm and adverse consequences |
| Systemic, institutional, and/or structural racism | Form of racism that is embedded through laws and regulations within society or an organization |
| Undocumented immigrant | Anyone residing in any given country without legal documentation from that country; includes people who enter a country without inspection and permission from the government, and those who enter with a legal visa but that remain after the visa expires (Immigrants Rising, 2021) |