Journal article
Invited Commentary: Multigenerational Social Determinants of Health-Opportunities and Challenges
American journal of epidemiology, v 182(7), pp 579-582
01 Oct 2015
PMID: 26283087
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
An emerging area of social epidemiology examines the relationship between grandparental education and grandchild health. In an accompanying article, Huang et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2015; 182(7): 568-578) join the small but growing body of research on this topic. It is useful to contextualize Huang et al.'s work within the much larger body of research examining relationships between education and health within a single generation or across 2 generations. These investigators have generally concluded that higher educational attainment is robustly associated with better health. There are many potential mechanisms through which education and other social exposures may affect health outcomes in a single generation or across generations, and estimating direct and indirect effects can be helpful for assessing specific mechanisms. Researchers conducting multigenerational analyses are faced with several challenges, including limited availability of data for some measures (e.g., educational attainment, and sometimes for 1 grandparent only), limited age ranges of participants, disparate social and political contexts in which study participants of different generations have lived, and patterns of social class reproduction. We encourage future researchers to weave together the careful analytical considerations illustrated by Huang et al. with a rich understanding of the social context for each of the generations studied to help overcome these challenges and advance our understanding of multigenerational social determinants of health.
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Details
- Title
- Invited Commentary: Multigenerational Social Determinants of Health-Opportunities and Challenges
- Creators
- Alison K. Cohen - Univ Calif Berkeley, Sch Publ Hlth, Div Epidemiol, Berkeley, CA 94720 USAFelice Le-Scherban - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- American journal of epidemiology, v 182(7), pp 579-582
- Publisher
- Oxford Univ Press
- Number of pages
- 4
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Urban Health Collaborative; Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000361811100003
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84943537917
- Other Identifier
- 991019168554004721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health