predisposing factor


risk factor

Epidemiology
An aspect of personal behaviour or lifestyle, an environmental exposure, or an inborn or inherited characteristic associated with an increased likelihood of disease or other health-related event or condition; a variable that affects the probability of a specified adverse event.
 
Medspeak-UK
Any social (e.g., domestic violence), economic (e.g., poverty), biological (e.g., breast cancer gene), behavioural (e.g., smoking) or environmental (e.g., air pollution) factor that is associated with—but does not independently cause—an increased risk of a particular disease, injury or physical or mental illness.
NIH Office Rare Disease
An aspect of personal behaviour or lifestyle, an environmental exposure, or an inborn or inherited characteristic known from scientific evidence to be associated with a health effect.
 
Psychiatry
Any attribute associated with an increased risk of suicide.
Public health
Any factor, based on epidemiological research, known to be linked to a particular disease—e.g., smoking and lung cancer; red meat and colorectal cancer; sedentary lifestyle and heart disease.
Suicidology
Any factor, based on epidemiology, which has been linked to an increased risk of suicide—e.g., suicide of a close friend or family member, stressor in the environment, major adverse life event.
 
Veterinary medicine
An individual attribute or exposure that is positively or negatively associated with the occurrence of a disease.