Epidemiol Rev 2004;26:92-103
© 2004 by the Oxford University Press
"Bodies Count," and Body Counts: Social Epidemiology and Embodying Inequality
1 Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
2 Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
Correspondence to Dr. Nancy Krieger, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: nkrieger@hsph.harvard.edu).
Received for publication December 8, 2003; accepted for publication March 3, 2004.
Abbreviation: MTHFR, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase.
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INTRODUCTION |
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Bodies count. In epidemiology, this statement would appear to be a core proposition, for it is by counting people—in varying states of health, disease, and disability, the alive and the dead—that we derive our estimates of population rates and risks of morbidity and mortality. But bodies count for more than this, for, in their manifest form—in height, weight, physique, and overall appearance (including posture and disfigurement)—they provide vivid evidence of how we literally embody the world in which we live, thereby producing population patterns of health, disease, disability, and death (1–5). Readily identifiable to the naked eye, these aspects of our being not only are predictive of future health outcomes but also tell of our conjoined social and biologic origins and trajectories.
In this paper, we argue that the field of social epidemiology has much to gain by considering the construct and reality of "embodiment," and
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EMBODIMENT AND BODIES: A BEGINNING |
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In the bones: the long-standing centrality of embodiment to epidemiology
Bringing the body back, in context
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EMBODYING INEQUALITY: EXAMPLES |
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Reproduce: the example of low birth weight
Develop: the example of age at menarche
Grow: the example of adult height
Exist in time and space: the example of Helicobacter pylori infection
Interact: the example of early childhood physical and sexual abuse
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EMBODYING INEQUALITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR POPULATION HEALTH |
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EMBODYING INEQUALITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR ETIOLOGIC RESEARCH |
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CONCLUSION |
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