The Importance of Social Interaction: A New Perspective on Social Epidemiology, Social Risk Factors, and Health

Abstract

Social epidemiology research has provided persuasive evidence of the link between the social environment--especially socioeconomic status--and health outcomes, but has failed to identify underlying mechanisms that might account for the association. The research may have been limited to date by its reliance on traditional epidemiological methods that emphasize a search for specific causal factor-disease relationships. It is time to take the research evidence and recast it to find practical solutions. We argue that the human development perspective supplies a framework for understanding the critical interaction between elements of social environment and health: Analyzing the social epidemiological research from this perspective can help to explain why and how the most potent factor, socioeconomic status, affects health outcomes. Equally important, this alternative perspective also presents health education practice implications.

The associations of parental under-education and unemployment on the risk of preterm birth: 2003 Korean National Birth Registration database

“…This association was not due to confounding factors such as place of birth, sex, marital status, paternal and maternal ages and parity. Many previous studies have shown that education is a valuable dimension of SES, strongly and consistently predicting health status, especially for women and their children (Bloomberg et al 1994). PTB, in common with other adverse pregnancy outcomes and consistent with our study, was also proven to be strongly influenced by maternal education (Kim et al 2005;Koupilova et al 1998;Lamy Filho et al 2007;Qin and Gould 2006;Rodrigues and Barros 2008).…”

Preconception Health Indicators: A Comparison Between Non-Appalachian and Appalachian Women

“…It has been suggested that education is the dimension of socioeconomic status (SES) that most strongly and consistently predicts health [18]. Here, Appalachian women were less likely to have at least a high school education compared to non-Appalachian women; women living in counties with weaker economies reported less education than women in counties with stronger economies.…”

Recessions and Mortality in Spain, 1980–1997

“…A relationship between work stress and health, including psychological and cardiovascular disorders and deaths, has been repeatedly documented (Kalimo et al, 1987;Graertz, 1993;Sparks et al, 1997;Schnall et al, 2000;Lundberg and Hellstro¨m, 2002). In Karasek and Theorell's demand-control model, high job demands associated with low control generate high risk of mortality, particularly due to cardiovascular disease (Peterson, 1994;Bloomberg et al, 1994;Johnson and Hall, 1995;Marmot and Feeney, 1996). In Japan the popular notion of karoshi or death from overwork has been supported by data (Sokejima and Kagamimori, 1998).…”