means vulnerable to an outcome, disorder, or disease. Risk status for an individual is defined by genetic, physical, social, and behavioral factors or conditions. For example, since schizophrenia is somewhat genetic in origin, a child of a schizophrenic parent would be more at risk for developing the disorder than a child of a parent without the disorder.
AT RISK: “The smoker was thought to be at risk for developing lung cancer, since smoking is known to cause this type of cancer.”