Scalable Combinatorial Tools for Health Disparities Research

Michael A. Langston, Robert S. Levine, Barbara J. Kilbourne, Gary L. Rogers, Anne D. Kershenbaum, Suzanne H. Baktash, Steven S. Coughlin, Arnold M. Saxton, Vincent K. Agboto, Darryl B. Hood, Maureen Y. Litchveld, Tonny J. Oyana, Patricia Matthews-Juarez and Paul D. Juarez
Additional contact information
Michael A. Langston: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Robert S. Levine: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Barbara J. Kilbourne: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Gary L. Rogers: National Institute for Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
Anne D. Kershenbaum: Department of Public Health, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Suzanne H. Baktash: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Steven S. Coughlin: Department of Epidemiology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Arnold M. Saxton: Department of Animal Science, Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Vincent K. Agboto: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Darryl B. Hood: Division of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Public Health, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Maureen Y. Litchveld: Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Tonny J. Oyana: Research Center on Health Disparities, Equity, and the Exposome, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38163, USA
Patricia Matthews-Juarez: Research Center on Health Disparities, Equity, and the Exposome, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38163, USA
Paul D. Juarez: Research Center on Health Disparities, Equity, and the Exposome, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38163, USA

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-25

Abstract: Despite staggering investments made in unraveling the human genome, current estimates suggest that as much as 90% of the variance in cancer and chronic diseases can be attributed to factors outside an individual’s genetic endowment, particularly to environmental exposures experienced across his or her life course. New analytical approaches are clearly required as investigators turn to complicated systems theory and ecological, place-based and life-history perspectives in order to understand more clearly the relationships between social determinants, environmental exposures and health disparities. While traditional data analysis techniques remain foundational to health disparities research, they are easily overwhelmed by the ever-increasing size and heterogeneity of available data needed to illuminate latent gene x environment interactions. This has prompted the adaptation and application of scalable combinatorial methods, many from genome science research, to the study of population health. Most of these powerful tools are algorithmically sophisticated, highly automated and mathematically abstract. Their utility motivates the main theme of this paper, which is to describe real applications of innovative transdisciplinary models and analyses in an effort to help move the research community closer toward identifying the causal mechanisms and associated environmental contexts underlying health disparities. The public health exposome is used as a contemporary focus for addressing the complex nature of this subject.

Keywords: combinatorial algorithms; data science; graph theoretical techniques; health disparities research; heterogeneous data analysis; high performance computing; public health exposome; relevance networks; scalable computation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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