What is risk factor's?

What Does risk factor's Mean

A factor is an element that acts in conjunction with others. The idea of risk , for its part, refers to the proximity or imminence of damage.

With these definitions clear, we can focus on the concept of risk factors . The notion is used in the field of health to refer to the fact or circumstance that increases the probability that an individual suffers from a certain problem or contracts a disease.
This means that, as a subject is affected by more risk factors are more likely to experience a disorder true: therefore has a health risk than that are the people who are far from these factors .

The smoking , for example, is a risk factor that affects the appearance of multiple diseases. The person who smokes is more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease than the rest. Those who smoke, on the other hand, are more likely to suffer from esophageal and lung cancer due to the harmful substances they ingest with tobacco.
It is important to distinguish between a cause and a risk factor. Risk factors are not always the causes of a disease, although they are associated with the event. When taken as a probability that can be measured, risk factors contribute to prediction and prognosis, and therefore working with them is a way of prevention. Returning to the previous example, if smoking is a risk factor for cancer, fighting smoking is a way to prevent the development of cancerous tumors.
Types of risk factors
Behavioral risk factors
In general, these types of risk factors are linked to certain actions that the person decides to carry out. For this reason, it is possible to reduce or eliminate them through decisions that affect your behavior or lifestyle. In addition to smoking, mentioned above, other behavioral risk factors are: certain nutritional choices, excess alcohol, lack of physical activity, exposure to the sun without sufficient protection, lack of certain vaccines at the ages established by the system health and sexual relations without taking proper precautions.
Physiological risk factors
When the fundamental points are the biology or the organism of the person, we speak of risk factors of a physiological type, which sometimes arise as a consequence of some genetic factors or of certain decisions made to the lifestyle, for example. Some examples are: obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and too high a blood sugar level.

Demographic risk factors
They are all those who are related to the citizens of a certain population, and therefore include the following: gender, work activity, age, salary and religion.
Environmental risk factors
Many different ones fall into this group, since diverse topics such as politics, culture , economy and society are taken into account , which are combined with biological, physical and chemical issues. Among the most common we have: occupational hazards, air pollution, lack of access to health services, the social environment.
Genetic risk factors
These risk factors focus on the person's genes, their genetic makeup, and that is why each individual may have a different degree of predisposition to certain diseases, such as muscular dystrophy or cystic fibrosis. In other cases, such as diabetes or asthma, environmental factors and genetics must be taken into account , while for diseases such as sickle cell anemia, belonging to certain subgroups of the population greatly increases the odds.