Table 2 Bioethical, social science and mental health definitions of vulnerability

Bioethics

• Vulnerable populations are more susceptible to abuse and require additional protections [19]

• The “vulnerable” are those likely to be misled, mistreated or taken advantage of, which imposes duty on researchers and ethical review boards (ERB’s) to ensure protections are in place [46].

Social Sciences

• Vulnerability is conceptualised as group status: powerlessness and potential for exploitation, those who lack the power and / or resources to speak out and make voluntary choices [46].

• Requires attention to individual and social vulnerabilities [46].

• Factors that influence vulnerability include exposure to disaster, individual capacity to cope, and the potential for serious crisis to occur as a result of exposure [46].

• Awareness of how displacement status (e.g., refugee or IDP), may affect individual vulnerability [32].

Mental Health

• Vulnerability defined in opposition to resilience: from a biomedical perspective, populations are seen as inherently vulnerable to adverse mental health reactions following disaster; whereas from a social sciences perspective the focus is upon the interactions between individual and community levels which may give rise to vulnerabilities [46]

• Assumptions of participant capacity and autonomy are unjustified in emergencies, requiring extra protections to avoid exploitation [51].