This week we’re delighted to be joined by Peter Collings’s colleague, Fredrik Lindencrona, from the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. We will take advantage of this opportunity to discuss a paper related to Dr. Lindencrona’s expertise:
Sellstrom, E., & Bremberg, S. (2006). The significance of neighbourhood context to child and adolescent health and well-being: A systematic review of multilevel studies. Scandanavian Journal of Public Health, 34(5), 544-554.
Please join us for the discussion in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room) on Friday, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m.
Today I’ll be giving an online presentation as part of an EPA-sponsored webinar (where did that word come from?) on “The Use of Race in Environmental Health Research: What Does/Could It Mean?” The event is a precursor to a symposium EPA will host in two weeks, “Strengthening Environmental Justice Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts.” I’m very happy to join Gilbert Gee and Charmaine Royal on the panel.
The event is being recorded, and my understanding is that the audio and slide presentations will be posted online soon. When that happens, I’ll update this post with the link.
For this week’s discussion, Doug Monroe selected an article that was featured in a New York Times editorial two weeks ago. As the Times suggested, this study has flamed debate over sex education policy because it suggests that, under certain circumstances, abstinence-only education can delay the start of sexual activity.
Jemmott, J. B., Jemmott, L. S., & Fong, G. T. (2010). Efficacy of a theory-based abstinence-only intervention over 24 months: a randomized controlled trial with young adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 164(2), 152-159.
Visit the journal club page to download the PDF, and join us Friday, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m., in Grinter 376 for the discussion.
Our discussion this week focuses on a recent paper by Ryan Brown, Dan Hruschka, and Carol Worthman in the American Anthropologist:
Brown, R. A., Hruschka, D. J., & Worthman, C. M. (2009). Cultural models and fertility timing among Cherokee and White youth in Appalachia: Beyond the mode. American Anthropologist, 111(4), 420-431.
Please join us Friday, Feb. 19, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m. in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room). I’ll be moderating the discussion, and we’ll have two visitors—a prospective student and a prospective colleague—join us.
Most of the articles we have discussed lately come from the intersection of anthropology and public health. This week we will discuss an article that represents another important strain of medical anthropology: the study of biomedicine as a cultural system. Noelle Sullivan selected the following article for discussion:
Castel, P. (2009). What’s behind a guideline?: Authority, competition and collaboration in the French oncology sector. Social Studies of Science, 39(5), 743-764.
Please join us to discuss this article on Friday, 12:50 – 1:40 p.m., in Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room).
This week Dr. Alyson Young will lead our discussion of a brand-new article by her mentor, Ivy Pike, and colleagues:
Pike, I. L., Straight, B., Oesterle, M., Hilton, C., & Lanyasunya, A. (2010). Documenting the health consequences of endemic warfare in three pastoralist communities of northern Kenya: A conceptual framework. Social Science & Medicine, 70(1), 45-52.
This article is part of a special issue of Social Science and Medicine on conflict, violence and health. There are a series of interesting and important articles on this timely topic. You may want to begin with the introduction to the issue by Catherine Panter-Brick, “Conflict, violence, and health: Setting a new interdisciplinary agenda.”
We meet tomorrow in Grinter 375 (Latin American Studies), 12:50 – 1:40 p.m.
Dr. Peter Collings will lead our journal club discussion this week of an article that touches on the interests of several members of our group:
Weaver, L. J., & Hadley, C. (2009). Moving beyond hunger and nutrition: A systematic review of the evidence linking food insecurity and mental health in developing countries. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 48(4), 263-284.
We will meet at the new time, 12:50 p.m., and the new place, Grinter 376 (Latin American Studies Conference Room). See you there.
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute just published a new correspondence by Connie Mulligan and me about race, genes, and cancer. Our letter is one of five written in response to a high-profile article published in JNCI last summer about racial differences in early death from sex-specific cancers—breast, ovarian, and prostate.
When the report appeared, nearly every major media outlet ran a story claiming that researchers had uncovered new evidence of a genetic basis to racial inequalities in health. See William Saletan’s article in Slate or Paul Taylor’s article in The Globe and Mail for two particularly bold examples.
In our letter, Connie Mulligan and I identify five reasons why the researchers’ speculation about genetic factors—not to mention the media’s portrayal—is unfounded. The most basic problem is that the study did not include any genetic data. They also did not account for the wide range of social and environmental factors that other studies have identified as key to racial inequalities in cancer. We emphasize the need to understand how institutional and interpersonal racism shape human biology, including the risk of early death from certain types of cancer.
If you’re interested in these issues, you’ll want to read the other letters by Michael Montoya and Erin Kent; Katrina Trivers, Lynne Messer, and Jay Kaufman; James Dignam; and Philip Rosenberg and colleagues. Also see the response from two of the original authors, Joseph Unger and Kathy Albain.
View our letter here.
Next Tuesday I’ll be at Emory to give a talk as part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Center Spring lecture series. The title of the talk is “Meaning and Measurement of Race in Health Research: Lessons from Hypertension in the African Diaspora.”
I’m especially happy to be giving this talk in Atlanta the day after Martin Luther King Day. In a speech to the Second National Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights on March 25, 1966, Dr. King declared, “Of all forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” I’ll open my talk on Tuesday with the slide you see at left to highlight Dr. King’s remark. It helps us to remember, I think, just how high the stakes are in scientific debate about the meaning and measurement of race in health research.
Here’s the abstract of my talk:
Current debate over racial inequalities in health has reignited controversy over the relations between race, biology, and culture. Some researchers maintain that racial categories are useful proxies for genetic differences in susceptibility to disease. Others see race as a cultural construct and argue for the primacy of social determinants of health. Yet few studies include the kinds of data necessary to pit genetic and sociocultural explanations head-to-head. Here I draw on genetic and sociocultural data from fieldwork in Puerto Rico and the southern United States to evaluate competing explanations for excess hypertension in the African Diaspora. The key finding is that the cultural ascription of racial identity, but not genetic ancestry, is associated with blood pressure. This finding underscores the need to examine how race and racism become embodied in human biology.
If you happen to be in Atlanta on Tuesday, come to the Psychology Building (PAIS) at Emory, Room 290, at 4:00 p.m.
Douglas Monroe will lead our journal club discussion this week with an article closely related to our current work in Tallahassee:
Shariff-Marco, S., Gee, G. C., Breen, N., Willis, G., Reeve, B. B., Grant, D. et al. (2009). A mixed-methods approach to developing a self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination measure for use in multiethnic health surveys. Ethnicity & Disease, 19(4), 447-453.
Please note that, based on popular demand, our meeting time has shifted to 12:50 – 1:40 p.m. While we look for a permanent meeting place during that time slot, we will meet this week in 1208 Turlington (Conference Room).
