Biological basis of determinants of health
Open accessAbstract
Clinical medicine and health policy planning find common cause as they seek to define the determinants of health. There is substantial recent interest in the social ecology in which health is embedded. However, biology is where these contributing environmental factors are translated. I provide a new conceptual framework for the biological determinants of health. The old public health rubric of host, agent, and environment as the features that define the root elements of health is an impoverished scheme, because it does not represent our new appreciation of genetic and aging contributions to phenotypic health. I propose genes, external agency, internal agency, and aging as more operationally helpful determinants that effectively describe the biological experience of the organism. This scheme has the advantage of differentiating those agencies that are practically approachable, and therefore deserving of increased attention and investment, and those that are currently intractable.
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SES indicators are upstream determinants of health while biological factors are more proximate determinants.
“SES indicators are upstream determinants of health while biological factors are more proximate determinants [221].”
From Food Addiction and Psychosocial Adversity: Biological Embedding, Contextual Factors, and Public Health Implications (2020) · cites this paper as [221]
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- Authors
- Bortz, W. M.
- Affiliations
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bortz, Walter M.
- ORCID
- Bortz, Walter M.
- Venue
- American Journal of Public Health
- Publisher
- American Public Health Association
- Published
- 2005-03
- Volume
- 95
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 389-392
- ISSN
- 0090-0036 (ISSN-L)
- 1541-0048
- PMC
- PMC1449189
- OpenAlex
- W2134002702
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- American Journal of Public Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Public Health Policies and Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, psychology, and well-being
- Keywords
- social determinants of health, biological determinants of health, genetic factors, aging, external agencies, conceptual framework, health policy
- MeSH terms
- Activities of Daily Living, Aging, Cause of Death, Ecology, Environment, Health Expenditures, Health Policy, Health Services Accessibility, Health Status, Homeostasis, Humans, Life Change Events, Mental Health, Models, Biological, Phenotype, Philosophy, Medical, Public Health, Risk Factors, United States, Health Behavior, Causality, Genetic Predisposition to Disease
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