[Pophealth] Shameless self-promotion: Population Health & Genetic vs. Social Causes of Disease: Matters of Relative Priority

[Goldberg, Daniel]

Hey all,

By way of further shameless self-promotion, here's a new article I have out that I hope might be of some interest to the Forum.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome, of course.

Daniel S. Goldberg, J.D., Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Department of Bioethics & Interdisciplinary Studies
Brody School of Medicine
East Carolina University
600 Moye Blvd, Mailstop 641
Greenville, N.C. 27834
goldbergd at ecu.edu
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/medhum/goldberg.cfm
_______________
Tel:  252.744.5699
Fax: 252.744.2319


http://www.ea-journal.com/art3.1/Goldberg-Population-health.pdf

Population Health & Genetic vs. Social Causes of Disease: Matters of Relative Priority

Daniel S. Goldberg

Department of Bioethics & Interdisciplinary Studies, Brody School of Medicine

East Carolina University

goldbergd at ecu.edu



Abstract:

This article critiques the effort to disentangle genetic from social causes of disease, but also argues that rough assessments of the relative effect each set of factors makes in shaping patterns of disease and inequities is both possible and is ethically recommended. The essay is divided into two main sections. The first provides the theoretical critique of the genetic-social causal dichotomy as to disease. The second offers the empirical critique of the same dichotomy, and moves on to consider the implications of this empirical evidence for priority-setting in public health policy. Ultimately, because theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that social causes are of much greater significance than genetic causes in causing disease and inequities in populations, even where measures intended to address both sets of causes should be supported, greater resources and attention should be directed to influencing social causes than genetic causes.

Keywords: genetics, social, causes, disease, priority, population health, inequities


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