ArticleMedicine, health care, and philosophy2023
Vulnerability, ageism, and health: is it helpful to label older adults as a vulnerable group in health care?
Article in Medicine, health care, and philosophy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- An Anthocyanin- and Anti-Ageing Amino Acids-Enriched Pigmented Rice Innovation Promotes Healthy Ageing Through the Modulation of Telomere, Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Reduction: A Randomized Clinical Trial.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Trial
- Gendered forms of intergenerational solidarity in the COVID-19 pandemic: an intersectional perspective on the public renegotiation of a moral resource for future health crises in Germany.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Article
- Clashing Perspectives? Two Approaches to the Desirability of Biological Aging.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2026Article
- A qualitative study of emergency physicians' perspective on the emergency journey of older patients.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The construction of an evaluation index system for the health vulnerability of frail and vulnerable older persons in nursing homes: a Delphi study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Multidisciplinary Professionals' Perceptions of Home-Visit Oral Care for Older Adults in Integrated Community Care: A Focus Group Interview Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Empowering the Aging Workforce: The Impact of Medical Insurance on Labor Decisions in Rural China.Iranian journal of public health · 2025Article
- Developing an ecosystem of advanced digital services for healthy ageing by a co-creation methodology: preliminary results of the AGAPE project.Journal of public health research · 2025Article
- Chasing 'vulnerability' across six decades of the Declaration of Helsinki.Monash bioethics review · 2025Article
- Examining the severity of disability and vulnerability among older adults and its impact on elder abuse: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Maximizing older people's access to primary health care centers in Lebanon: a co-design approach.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Processed food intake assortativity in the personal networks of older adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring loneliness in elderly Javanese and social support.Frontiers in sociology · 2025Article
- Article
- The impact of temperature changes on the health vulnerability of migrant workers: an empirical study based on the China family panel studies.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Individual vices and institutional failings as drivers of vulnerabilisation.Social epistemology · 2024Article
- Perspectives on vulnerability from the narratives of older migrants.Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie · 2024Review
- Vulnerability and narrative in later life.Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie · 2024Review
- Assessing the Impact of Multidisciplinary Collaboration on Quality of Life in Older Patients Receiving Primary Care: Cross Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
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Abstract
Despite the diversity of ageing, society and academics often describe and label older persons as a vulnerable group. As the term vulnerability is frequently interchangeably used with frailty, dependence, or loss of autonomy, a connection between older age and deficits is promoted. Concerning this, the question arises to what extent it may be helpful to refer to older persons as vulnerable specifically in the context of health care. After analyzing different notions of vulnerability, I argue that it is illegitimate to conclude that older age is related to increased vulnerability. Much more, identifying older adults as a vulnerable group is closely related to ageism and can be associated with paternalistic benevolence and a tendency to overprotection, especially within health care. Additionally, even though older adults are more often in situations of increased vulnerability due to their potentially higher need for health care, I argue further that older adults mainly become a vulnerable group due to ageism. In this way, it can be concluded that the vulnerability of older adults does not originate in certain attributes of the group, but arises from a characteristic of society and, in turn, health personnel, namely ageism. Labeling older adults as vulnerable therefore is only helpful, when it is used to raise awareness of the widespread ageism in society, in this context, especially in the setting of health care, and the negative consequences thereof for older adults.
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