European multilingual thesaurus on
health promotion in 12 languages
INTRODUCTION
European multilingual thesaurus on health promotion in 12 languages.
March 2001
Colophon
Project staff: Laura Dorst (projectmanager), Giancarlo Pocetta (project with respect to the
contents), Kerstin Karlström (technical project).
Editors: Guillemette Chevaillier (French language), Laura Dorst (Dutch language),
Mercedes Febrel (Spanish language), Margaret Forrest (English language), Osvaldo
Fressoia (Italian language), Kerstin Karlström (Swedish language), Pania Karnaki (Greek
language), Birgit Lange (Danish language), Outi Meriläinen (Finnish language), Pedro
Ribeiro da Silva (Portuguese language), Turid Tharaldsen (Norwegian language), Heidrun
Zimmermann (German language).
Layout and production: Laura Dorst, Kerstin Karlström.
NIGZ Netherlands Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
P.O. Box 500
3440 AM Woerden
The Netherlands
Visiting Address: De Bleek 13, Woerden, The Netherlands
tel:
+31 348 437 600
fax:
+31 348 437 666
e-mail:
[email protected]
©2001. This publication has been produced with the financial support of the European Commission. Neither
the Commision of the European Communities nor any person acting in the name of the Commission is to be
held responsible for the use made of the information contained in this publication.
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Preface
This European multilingual thesaurus in the field of health promotion and health education is the
final product of the shared efforts of intensive collaboration over the years of many experts and
organisations at a European level. Indeed, this project is an excellent example of good practice of
international co-operation. Perhaps it is one of the best examples of successful project cooperation in international health promotion in the last years.
Of course a multilingual thesaurus has to be built by terminology experts from the different
countries. But also by experts in health promotion. This effort cannot be underestimated. Such a
thesaurus has to cover core terminology in health promotion in a balanced way. However the
volume has to be restricted. In the end a thesaurus is an instrument not a goal and will be used as
a tool in health promotion and information. That means that constantly choices had to be made,
respecting the notion of different concepts in different languages. We are one Europe, but every
citizen knows and appreciates the uniqueness of every European country.
This final thesaurus is based on the work done in several projects. First under the umbrella of the
International Union of Health Promotion and Health Education (IUHPE/EURO) a West-European
thesaurus in English, French, German and Dutch was made. Later with support of the EC this work
was followed up by similar projects in Southern Europe resulting in a thesaurus in Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese and Greek, and the Nordic thesaurus in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish.
Finally in this project, with involvement of the European Network of Health Promotion Agencies
(ENHPA), the three thesauri were integrated in one final European product in 12 languages.
This is not the place to mention all participants and experts involved in this and preceding projects,
but we do like to thank all persons and organisations from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England
and Scotland, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain,
Sweden. We know that their personal investments and the investments of their organisations
exceeded formal expectations. We also know that the participants are very proud of this final
result; from now on they have to without the inspiring comradely contacts with their colleagues
from abroad. However three persons have to be especially mentioned. From the start of this
endeavour Ms. Laura Dorst (NIGZ, the Netherlands) was the binding co-ordinator. Her down-toearth approach combined with her humour were essential to the project. Ms. Kerstin Karlström
(Karolinska Institutet, Library, Sweden) was the expert who processed with a lot of persistence and
optimism all data into an impressive instrument. Mr. Giancarlo Pocetta (CSESi, Italy) had an
important role in integrating the Southern-European perspectives into the overall approach.
Sometimes constructing a thesaurus in 12 languages is like constructing a new tower of Babel. No
wonder that the painting of Bruegel the Elder became a symbol during the project. However the
partners in the project were aiming at a much more humble goal. A realistic instrument that can
and will be used in the field of health promotion in Europe. I am convinced that they were
successful in reaching that goal.
Gerard van der Zanden
NIGZ, the Netherlands
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Introduction
This multilingual thesaurus in 12 languages (Thesaurus 12) on health promotion is a product of international
co-operation. It will stimulate a common and uniform use of terms in the fields of health promotion and health
education throughout Europe. Such shared language will support the exchange of information, promote new
international collaborating projects and facilitate international comparisons.
A multilingual thesaurus is a tool for indexing and retrieving information from international databases and
makes national databases available for experts from foreign countries.
This thesaurus can be used as a source for updating national thesauri or for developing standardisation of
terms in countries that lag behind.
This thesaurus is the result of the products of three similar multilingual thesaurus projects carried out in
different regions in Europe.
In 1994 and 1995 the European Commission (EC) funded a Western European project to be carried out by
the international Union for Health Promotion and Education, Region Europe (IUPHE/EURO). The multilingual
thesaurus in English, German, French and Dutch was completed a year later and officially published by the
EC. This thesaurus has been developed by health promotion and terminology experts from France, England,
Scotland, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders and Wallony), and advisors from Spain, Italy,
IUPHE/EURO and the European Commission.
In 1996 the Centro Sperimentale per l’Educazione Sanitaria interuniversitario (CSESi, Italy) carried out a
multilingual thesaurus project, related to the former IUPHE/EURO project, which resulted in a multilingual
thesaurus on health promotion in Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish for the southern region of Europe.
A year later in 1997 Spri – Hälso- och sjukvårdens utvecklingsinstitut (Spri, Sweden) started a similar
multilingual thesaurus project on health promotion in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.
The European Network of Health Promotion Agencies (ENHPA) co-ordinated in 1997 a meeting, where
representatives of the participating organisations of the three regional projects met and discussed the
development of a common European thesaurus, based upon the work done in the aforementioned projects
with representatives of the European Commission. This meeting resulted in the Project European
Multilingual Thesaurus on Health Promotion in 12 languages, of which the result is now before you.
Construction Process.
Three Management Committees were established, the Northern European Management Committee (NMC)
with the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish language co-ordinators, the Western European
Management Committee (WMC) with the Dutch, English, French and German language co-ordinators, and
the Southern Management Committee (SMC) with the Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish language coordinators. Each management committee delegated a representative to the European Management
Committee.
The first step was the merging of the terms of the three projects into a source database, from which a
working list with all preferred terms from the three regional projects was extracted.
The second step was establishing the scope of the Thesaurus 12. Therefore the Regional Management
Committees proposed new terms, which they believed were missing in the regional thesauri.
The European Management Committee and the source language consultant discussed this working list and
the new proposals country specific-, region specific- and common concepts. They established the scope of
the thesaurus, the definite list of preferred terms, consisting of region specific- and common concepts. The
language co-ordinators added equivalent terms that each preferred term had equivalent terms in all
languages.
As a third step the European Management Committee established the macrostructure based, upon the
macrostructures of the three regional thesauri, placing each preferred term in this common macrostructure.
The fourth step consisted of establishing hierarchical and associative relationships between the preferred
terms. After the last stage the language co-ordinators had the opportunity to comment on the placement of
terms in the macrostructure and on the relationships and to add non-preferred terms in their languages.
The European Management Committee completed most of their work in two meetings of five days each. Email and telephone were the main methods of communications between the meeting and with the language
co-ordinators.
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Collaborators
The contributors to this project are as follows:
Project Co-ordinators:
− Laura Dorst, Netherlands Institute for Health Promotion and Disease prevention (NIGZ), Woerden,
Project Co-ordinator projectmanagement.
− Giancarlo Pocetta, Experimental Center for Health Education (CSESi), Perugia, Project Co-ordinator
with respect to the content
− Kerstin Karlström, Karolinska Institute Library, Stockholm, Project Co-ordinator technical aspects.
European Management Committee:
− Laura Dorst, Netherlands Institute for Health Promotion and Disease prevention (NIGZ), Woerden,
Language Co-ordinator Dutch language.
− Osvaldo Fressoia, Agenzia SEDES, Perugia, Language Co-ordinator Italian language.
− Kerstin Karlström, Karolinska Institute Library, Stockholm, Language Co-ordinator Swedish language.
Source Language Consultant:
− Margaret Forrest, Health Education Board for Scotland, Edinburgh.
Northern Management Committee:
− Birgit Lange, The Danish National Library of Science and Medicine, Language Co-ordinator Danish
language.
− Outi Meriläinen, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES),
Language Co-ordinator Finnish language.
− Turid Tharaldsen, Norwegian Library Association, Language Co-ordinator Norwegian language.
Southern Management Committee:
− Mercedes Febrel, Dirección de Ordenación, Planificación y Evaluación, Departamento de Sanidad,
Zaragoza, Language Co-ordinator Spanish language.
− Pedro Ribeiro da Silva, Direcção Geral de Saúde, Lisbon, Language Co-ordinator Portuguese language.
− Elpida Pavi, Institute of Social and Preventive Medecin (ISPM), Athens, Language Co-ordinator Greek
language (replaced by Pania Karnaki).
− Pania Karnaki, Institute of Social and Preventive Medecin (ISPM), Athens, Language Co-ordinator Greek
language.
Western Management Committee:
− Guillemette Chevaillier, École Nationale de la Santé Publique (ENSP), Rennes, Language Co-ordinator
French language.
− Margaret Forrest, Health Education Board for Scotland, Edinburgh, Language Co-ordinator English
language.
− Heidrun Zimmermann-Rüther, Bundeszentrale für Gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BzGa), Cologne,
Language Co-ordinator German language.
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Advisors and other consultants
− Arne Jakobsson, University of Oslo Library, Library of Medicine and Health Sciences, Oslo
− Kathy Mahan, Agenzia SEDES, Perugia.
− Hermann Stallbaumer, Technisches Büro für Elektrotechnik (TBHS), Vienna
− Ylva Gavel, Karolinska Institute Library, Stockholm
Description
The Thesaurus 12 is divided in:
A general part for all languages, consisting of an alphabetical display of the preferred terms with 11
equivalent terms, the macrostructure, a systematic display of terms according to the macrostructure and a
permuted index.
11 Language specific parts, with the alphabetical display of the preferred and non-preferred terms in one
language with the hierarchical and associative relationships and with a key index.
The following abbreviations have been used:
USE
The term that follows the symbol is the preferred term when a choice between synonyms or quasisynonyms exists
UF
Use for; the term that follows the symbol is a non-preferred synonym or quasi synonym
BT
Broader Term; the term that follows the symbol represents a concept which has a broader meaning
NT
Narrower Term; the term that follows the symbol refers to a concept with a more specific meaning
RT
Related Term; the term that follows the symbol is associated, but is not a synonym, a quasisynonym, a broader term or a narrower term
The following abbreviations indicate the equivalent terms in the following languages
Dan
Danish
Dut
Dutch
Eng
English
Fin
Finnish
Ger
German
Gre
Greek
Ita
Italian
Nor
Norwegian
Por
Portuguese
Spa
Spanish
Swe
Swedish
Choice of terms
The Thesaurus 12 concerns the key issues of health education, health promotion and patient education at
European level. The selected descriptors of health issues are mostly related to health behaviour and issues,
which are often subjects of patient education, consumer information and educational materials. The
emphasis has been placed on the practice of health promotion and not on compiling an extensive and
theoretical list of terms.
Familiarity with health promotion was an important criterion for choosing one synonym above another.
The English language was used as the source language, which means that English served as a starting
point for translating preferred terms into equivalent terms in the target languages, i.e. Danish, Dutch, Finnish,
French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish.
The International Standard ISO 2788 : Documentation – Guidelines for the establishment and development
of monolingual thesauri (1986) and the International Standard ISO 5964 : Documentation – Guidelines for
the establishment and development for multilingual thesauri (1985) have been applied during this
construction process and during the construction processes of the three regional thesauri.
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The choice of concepts is based on the field of health promotion in the participating European regions. Some
concepts can be more important in one region than in another. Terms have been presented as plural or
singular depending on national standards. Non-preferred terms have no equivalent terms. They only exist on
a national level.
The principle of postco-ordination is applied. Compound terms are accepted when they describe natural
concepts and indexing terms. Compound terms may also have been constructed if equivalent terms are not
available.
Choice of relationships
This thesaurus displays several kinds of relationships.
The equivalence relationship (Use and Use for) is the relationship between preferred and non-preferred
terms, referring to the same concept. The equivalence relationship does not occur in all languages. There
are no corresponding terms for non-preferred terms in the different languages. Non-preferred terms in an
equivalence relation are synonyms, quasi-synonyms, abbreviations or full names.
The hierarchical relationship (BT and NT) is applied when there is a link between class or category and its
member or species and is applied when there is a whole-part relationship.
The associative relationship (RT) is applied to terms which are connected by association to such an extent,
that reference to the other term should be made explicit for indexing or retrieval purposes. The associative
relationship is not applied to terms which share a common broader term.
Generally a multilingual thesaurus contains a richer variety of associative relationships than a monolingual
thesaurus, due to the viewpoints in different languages.
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