Challenges and opportunities for integrative health research in the context of culture: A commentary on Gersten

Thomas W. McDade*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new generation of research in population health is drawing on models and methods from the social and biomedical sciences to combine rich measurement of everyday contexts with objective measures of physiological function and health in field-based settings. We are at the beginning of an exciting era of discovery, and this commentary focuses on two questions of particular importance to comparative research. First, how do we use biological measures to define "health"? Second, how do we define and measure social context, particularly across cultural settings? Answers to these questions, as well as others addressed by scholars working at the intersection of the social and biomedical sciences, will ultimately lead to a better, more multidimensional understanding of human biology and health.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)520-524
Number of pages5
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume66
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2008

Keywords

  • Allostatic load
  • Culture
  • Health
  • Neuroendocrine allostatic load (NAL)
  • Neuroendocrine biomarkers
  • Social relations
  • Stress
  • Taiwan
  • USA

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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