The Influence of Social Dynamics on Biological Aging and the Health of Historically Marginalized Populations: A Biopsychosocial Model for Health Disparities

Lok Ming Tam, Kristin Hocker, Tamala David and Edith Marie Williams ()
Additional contact information
Lok Ming Tam: Department of Environmental Medicine, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
Kristin Hocker: School of Nursing, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
Tamala David: Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
Edith Marie Williams: Office of Health Equity Research, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: Historically marginalized populations are susceptible to social isolation resulting from their unique social dynamics; thus, they incur a higher risk of developing chronic diseases across the course of life. Research has suggested that the cumulative effect of aging trajectories per se, across the lifespan, determines later-in-life disease risks. Emerging evidence has shown the biopsychosocial effects of social stress and social support on one’s wellbeing in terms of inflammation. Built upon previous multidisciplinary findings, here, we provide an overarching model that explains how the social dynamics of marginalized populations shape their rate of biological aging through the inflammatory process. Under the framework of social stress and social support theories, this model aims to facilitate our understanding of the biopsychosocial impacts of social dynamics on the wellbeing of historically marginalized individuals, with a special emphasis on biological aging. We leverage this model to advance our mechanistic understanding of the health disparity observed in historically marginalized populations and inform future remediation strategies.

Keywords: social dynamics; aging; health disparity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/5/554/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/5/554/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:5:p:554-:d:1384119

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().