Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 16, 2026

Author Spotlight: Assessing Surgical Frailty with Point-of-Care Ultrasound of Quadriceps Muscles
Published on: July 26, 2024
Using standard clinical assessments for home care to identify vulnerable populations before, during, and after
Alexandra I T van Solm1, John P Hirdes2, Leslie A Eckel3
1Emergency Management Coordinator Region of Waterloo, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
Objectives:
Several studies have shown the increased vulnerability of and disproportionate mortality rate among frail community-dwelling older adults as a result of emergencies and disasters. This article will discuss the applicability of the Vulnerable Persons at Risk (VPR) and VPR Plus decision support algorithms designed based on the Resident Assessment Instrument-Home Care (RAI-HC) to identify the most vulnerable community-dwelling (older) adults.
Design:
A sample was taken from the Ontario RAI-HC database by selecting unique home care clients with assessments closest to December 31, 2014 (N = 275,797). Statistical methods used include cross tabulation, bivariate logistic regression as well as Kaplan-Meier survival plotting and Cox proportional hazards ratios calculations.
Results:
The VPR and VPR Plus algorithms, were highly predictive of mortality, long-term care admission and hospitalization in ordinary circumstances. This provides a good indication of the strength of the algorithms in identifying vulnerable persons at times of emergencies.
Conclusions:
Access to real-time person-level information of persons with functional care needs is a vital enabler for emergency responders in prioritizing and allocating resources during a disaster, and has great utility for emergency planning and recovery efforts. The development of valid and reliable algorithms supports the rapid identification and response to vulnerable community-dwelling persons for all phases of emergency management.
Related Concept Videos
Standards of Care II
Standards of Care I
Estimating Population Standard Deviation
Estimating Population Mean with Known Standard Deviation
The confidence interval estimate will have the form as follows:
(point estimate - error bound, point estimate +...
Estimating Population Mean with Unknown Standard Deviation
William S. Gosset (1876–1937) of the...
Conservation of Small Populations

