protective factor
Meaning of protective factor: A protective factor is a characteristic or behavior associated with a lower likelihood of developing a particular disease or health problem.
Definition of protective factor
A protective factor is a characteristic, behavior, or exposure associated with a reduced likelihood of developing a particular disease or health condition. Protective factors are identified through population level research comparing groups of people with different characteristics or habits, rather than through direct experiments performed on a single individual, so they describe an association across many people rather than a guarantee for any one person.
Protective factors span many areas of health. Examples include regular physical activity and maintaining a body weight within a typical range in relation to cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, vaccination in relation to infectious disease, and strong social support in relation to mental health outcomes.
A protective factor is the conceptual counterpart to a risk factor, which instead describes something associated with an increased likelihood of a condition, and many health discussions consider both together when describing overall risk.
Used in a sentence
Regular physical activity was discussed as a protective factor relevant to the patient's cardiovascular risk.
Good to know
A protective factor lowers the likelihood of a condition across a population but does not eliminate individual risk, since people with several protective factors can still develop the condition in question.