Recent work at the Geriatric Medicine Research Unit has shed light on the link between social vulnerability and mortality. 

Dr. Melissa Andrew, a geriatrician working at the research unit, describes social vulnerability as a variety of factors that make people susceptible to illness, disease, decline in their ability to do things for themselves, or even death. The factors  can include low education, low income, lack of family supports, social isolation, not being able to participate in community activities, living in a community with high unemployment and having few opportunities for socializing.

This work on social vulnerability  is of vital importance as it has shown that for each additional social vulnerability factor a person had, the likelihood of death increased 5-8%. Working with data from 7000+ Canadian over the age of 65, she has also shown that the older a person is, the higher their level of social vulnerability. Click here to read the work of Dr. Andrew and her colleagues  at the open journal PLoS ONE.

The research unit has invested in a series of videos to explain  the importance and impact of their work in areas such as social vulnerability,  dementia, and frailty. You can see all the videos here.