Vulnerable population and “at risk” population

This article discusses the vulnerable and at-risk population in the United States, with a focus on the adult population at risk of obesity and cardiovascular diseases. It also covers ethical issues and advocacy for this group.

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Vulnerable population and “at risk” population
The population at risk is a group of people who are at risk with a common identifiable
risk factor that can be fatal for their health. For example, population who are at risk of obesity
and cardiovascular diseases, consisting of adult population living a sedentary life is a risk group
in United States. The Hispanics and the Non-hispanics are reported to have the highest
prevalence of obesity.
The vulnerable population is defined as the groups that are more likely to develop health
related problems and face more difficulties to access the health care facilities to address the
health care problems (Waisel 2013). They have generally shorter life span and poor quality of
life. Some of the examples of vulnerable population are homeless, poor people, homeless people,
and people with disability, mental illness, older people, women and children, prisoners, refugee
and people belonging to the LGBTQ community are the vulnerable population in United States
(Waisel 2013).
1. The vulnerable people are mostly overlooked, dismissed and cannot raise the voice of
protest. They are often marginalized, stigmatized and do not get access to their basic human
rights. Due to the lack of support and encouragement, they cannot advocate for themselves
(Rose 2016).
2. Giving voice to them should be the primary steps of advocacy. They should be advocated for
getting equal access to the health care facilities, any economic facilities that they have been
granted, but they are not aware of them (Loignon et al. 2015). Patients with cognitive
disorders can be advocated for rehabilitation services and the services taking care of
traumatic brain injury patients. Elderly patients can be advocated for financial help liaising

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them for Medicare services or stroke rehabilitation centre, residential care centre( Rose
2016).
3. Ethical issues
It is necessary to ensure respect for the autonomy of the members of the vulnerable group
as they are the ones who are the sufferers of any kinds of ethical breach. It is necessary to ensure
that elderly people are appropriately regarded to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the patient.
Privacy and confidentiality is necessary while communicating or while taking care of the
pregnant women and LGBTQ people. As a nurse it is necessary to discourage any sorts of
negative expression about this vulnerable group. It is necessary to check that these vulnerable
people gets access to healthcare at an ease, which can be done by developing separate health
portals or helpline numbers, exclusively for this group. Special privileges can also be given to
this people for an easy assimilation of this group.
4. The selected at risk group are the adult population who are at risk of obesity due to their
sedentary life style. Sedentary desk jobs, lack of physical activities have increased the risk of
obesity among the adult population of United States. The prevalence of obesity was found to
be 39.9% and has affected about 93.3 millions of the US adults (CDC 2017).
Some of the obesity related health conditions are hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular
diseases and physical inactivity. The annual cost for obesity related conditions is estimated to
be $147 billion US dollar (CDC 2017).
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References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2017. Adult Obesity Facts. Access date: 12.1.2019.
Retrieved from:https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Loignon, C., Fortin, M., Bedos, C., Barbeau, D., Boudreault-Fournier, A., Gottin, T., Goulet, É.,
Laprise, E., … Haggerty, J. L. 2015. Providing care to vulnerable populations: a qualitative study
among GPs working in deprived areas in Montreal, Canada. Family practice, 32(2), pp.232-6.
Rose, E.J., 2016. Design as advocacy: Using a human-centered approach to investigate the needs
of vulnerable populations. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 46(4), pp.427-445.
Waisel, D.B., 2013. Vulnerable populations in healthcare. Current Opinion in
Anesthesiology, 26(2), pp.186-192.