What do epidemiologists mean by the term population at risk?
The population at risk refers to those people who are specifically capable of coming down with the condition, or developing the condition, of interest. For example, we can give several good examples for many infectious diseases, if there is a specific immunization against that disease to protect the population, and then the individuals who have received the immunization generally will not be part of the population at risk. If we are talking about cervical cancer, women who have had a hysterectomy would not be a part of the population at risk for cervical cancer and so forth.
