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When you work on #HealthInequalities you get asked (a lot!) whether socially patterned health differences are caused by genetics
This "genetic essentialism" question could be naive, but we need to answer it carefully to avoid reinforcing stigma & inequalities
This "genetic essentialism" question could be naive, but we need to answer it carefully to avoid reinforcing stigma & inequalities
Non-genetic biological aspects of our health *can* be socially patterned: socially & structurally disadvantaged populations being at "higher biological risk" for some diseases compared to advantaged people
This is an example of the lifecourse embodiment of social disadvantage
This is an example of the lifecourse embodiment of social disadvantage
N. Kreiger has written extensively on this as a key part of her EcoSocial Theory: social disadvantage is expressed biologically through our physiological adaptation to social environments
A nice paper by Krieger: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4985119/?report=reader
A nice paper by Krieger: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4985119/?report=reader
When we observe health differences, and sometimes biomarker differences between groups of the population, the genetic explanation is also unlikely because of the broad genetic heterogeneity within the social groups being compared
Genetic explanations are also hard to match with many complex biological observations, as explained here by the erudite @JohannesTextor regarding the immune system: https://twitter.com/JohannesTextor/status/1264640955245834248?s=20
So why do we sometimes observe biological differences across the social gradient?
There's a whole research field on social-to-biological questions
-The mechanisms involved work partly through different exposures to exogenous factors, like infections, pollution etc
There's a whole research field on social-to-biological questions
-The mechanisms involved work partly through different exposures to exogenous factors, like infections, pollution etc
-Others involve our internal adaptive response to the environment, endogenous factors like the stress-response system which is differently solicited over the lifecourse according to structural discrimination, racism, status anxiety, adversities & many other chronic stressors
A nice piece on the issue of racial Stereotyping in medical science by Angela Saini
"But the persistent habit of essentialising large groups of people in medicine, I would argue, needs to be interrogated" https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31139-9/fulltext
"But the persistent habit of essentialising large groups of people in medicine, I would argue, needs to be interrogated" https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31139-9/fulltext
