Preface to The Biology of Disadvantage: Socioeconomic Status and Health

Abstract

This volume is the product of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Network on Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Health. For the last 12 years the network has provided a structure through which scientists from a wide range of disciplines jointly addressed the question: How does SES get under the skin to affect health? In 1999, early in our life as a network, we organized a conference held at the National Institutes of Health on SES and health in industrialized nations. The conference presentations were published as a special volume of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.1 Since that time, network members have worked together to provide answers to the central questions about the relationship of SES and health. In the process, numerous articles and books reflecting our work have been published. 2 The current volume builds on these findings and stands as a bookend to the former Annals volume, presenting what we have learned in our decade of work since the 1999 conference, and our thoughts on the current state of knowledge about the pathways by which SES affects health.

Discriminating military and civilian traumatic brain injuries

“…Such variables may be genetic, epigenetic or environmental factors not yet explored in the context of outcome after injury. For instance, psychosocial factors such as social status and early-life environment are associated with overall mortality rates and prevalence rates of many diseases (Adler and Stewart, 2010;Braveman et al, 2011). Such an association may be present in terms of outcome after TBI as well, but to our knowledge no empirical attempts have been made to explore this possibility.…”

The Social Determinants of Health: It's Time to Consider the Causes of the Causes

“…However, the observational examples cited as illustrations are backed up by extensive literature employing a range of techniques (e.g., multiple regression, instrumental variables, matched case-control designs, and propensity score matching) to reduce bias and confounding due to unmeasured variables. 3,4,7,17,19 This knowledge base is also enriched by natural experiments, 3,36,68,69 quasiexperiments, 70 and some, albeit limited, randomized controlled experiments. [71][72][73][74] The overwhelming weight of evidence demonstrates the powerful effects of socioeconomic and related social factors on health, even when definitive knowledge of specific mechanisms and effective interventions is limited.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] This evidence does not deny that medical care influences health; rather, it indicates that medical care is not the only influence on health and suggests that the effects of medical care may be more limited than commonly thought, particularly in determining who becomes sick or injured in the first place. 4,6,7,17,18 The relationships between social factors and health, however, are not simple, and there are active controversies regarding the strength of the evidence supporting a causal role of some social factors. Meanwhile, researchers increasingly are calling into question the appropriateness of traditional criteria for assessing the evidence.…”

Social Work Education and Avoidable Ignorance

“…Personal and social problems are closely linked (Mills, 1959). Social workers see clients whose lives are affected by social and economic inequities including lack of health care, poor-quality education, and lack of or substandard housing (Adler & Stewart, 2010;Haushofer, 2013;Van Harmelen et al, 2014). Classism and racism are rife.…”