History, biology, and health inequities: Emergent embodied phenotypes and the illustrative case of the breast cancer estrogen receptor

N. Krieger

American Journal of Public Health, 2013, vol. 103, issue 1, 22-27

Abstract: How we think about biology-in historical, ecological, and societal context-matters for framing causes of and solutions to health inequities. Drawing on new insights from ecological evolutionary developmental biology and ecosocial theory, I question dominant gene-centric and ultimately static approaches to conceptualizing biology, using the example of the breast cancer estrogen receptor (ER). Analyzed in terms of its 4 histories-societal, individual (life course), tumor (cellular pathology), and evolutionary-the ER is revealed as a flexible characteristic of cells, tumors, individuals, and populations, with magnitudes of health inequities tellingly changing over time. This example suggests our science will likely be better served by conceptualizing disease and its biomarkers, along with changing magnitudes of health inequities, as embodied history-that is, emergent embodied phenotype, not innate biology. Copyright © 2012 by the American Public Health Association®.

Keywords: estrogen receptor, article; breast tumor; developmental biology; female; health care disparity; human; individuality; metabolism; mortality; phenotype; social class, Breast Neoplasms; Developmental Biology; Female; Healthcare Disparities; Humans; Individuality; Phenotype; Receptors, Estrogen; Social Class (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2012.300967_8

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300967

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