TimesInternational Centre for Health and Society 2001 Seminar Series
19 September 2001 - 5pm0100,0100,0100
Carol Worthman
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and Director of the
Labortory for Comparative Human Biology, University of Atlanta, USATimes New Roman
Times'Hormonal Pathways from Social Inequity to Health Inequity'Times New Roman
Abstract
TimesAlthough societal and structural factors create the conditions shaping
population health, the proximal pathways that mediate relationships of
context to outcome remain poorly specified. This presentation
explores the role of neuro-endocrine dynamics that mediate
relationships of society to individual outcomes, and uses a
developmental ecological approach to operationalize “context” at the
individual level in terms of the concept of the microniche. For this
discussion, data from two population-based studies, one of lifestyle
and well-being in Nepali children, another of developmental
epidemiology in North Carolina, will be used to illustrate the use of
neuroimmunologic, psychophysiologic, and endocrine-regulatory
markers to trace pathways to differential well-being. Findings from
these and related studies suggest a potentially more perturbation-
robust approach to identification of macro-level conditions crucial to
well-being, with the aim to inform social and health policies.
Carol M. Worthman took her Ph.D. degree in biological anthropology
from Harvard University, with additional training at the University of
California at San Diego Medical School and at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. She joined Emory University in Atlanta,
Georgia, USA, in 1986, where she is the Samuel Candler Dobbs
Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Laboratory for
Comparative Human Biology. Her work addresses the interface of
culture and biology and its role in differential well-being, and employs
a multi-disciplinary approach combined with comparative analyses
between populations and species and across time (acute,
developmental, evolutionary).
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Patricia Crowley
Centre Administrator
International Centre for Health and Society
Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
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