Social determinants of health and survival in humans and other animals

Noah Snyder-Mackler; Joseph Robert Burger; Lauren Gaydosh; Daniel W Belsky; Grace A Noppert; Fernando A Campos; Alessandro Bartolomucci; Yang Claire Yang; Allison E Aiello; Angela O'Rand; Kathleen Mullan Harris; Carol A Shively; Susan C Alberts; Jenny Tung

doi:10.1126/science.aax9553

Social determinants of health and survival in humans and other animals

Science. 2020 May 22;368(6493):eaax9553. doi: 10.1126/science.aax9553.

Authors

Noah Snyder-Mackler^{1

2

3

4}, Joseph Robert Burger^{1

5

6

7}, Lauren Gaydosh^{1

8}, Daniel W Belsky^{1

5

9

10}, Grace A Noppert^{1

5

11

12

13}, Fernando A Campos^{1

14

15}, Alessandro Bartolomucci¹⁶, Yang Claire Yang^{1

12

17

18}, Allison E Aiello^{1

12

19}, Angela O'Rand^{1

5

11}, Kathleen Mullan Harris^{1

12

17}, Carol A Shively^{1

20}, Susan C Alberts^{1

2

5

11

14

21}, Jenny Tung^{22

2

5

11

14

21}

Affiliations

¹ Social and Biological Determinants of Health Working Group, NC, USA.
² Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁴ Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
⁵ Population Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁶ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁷ Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁸ Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁰ Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA.
¹¹ Center for Population Health and Aging, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
¹² Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹³ Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁸ Lineberger Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
²⁰ Comparative Medicine Section, Department of Pathology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
²¹ Institute of Primate Research, Nairobi, Kenya.
²² Social and Biological Determinants of Health Working Group, NC, USA. [email protected].

Abstract

The social environment, both in early life and adulthood, is one of the strongest predictors of morbidity and mortality risk in humans. Evidence from long-term studies of other social mammals indicates that this relationship is similar across many species. In addition, experimental studies show that social interactions can causally alter animal physiology, disease risk, and life span itself. These findings highlight the importance of the social environment to health and mortality as well as Darwinian fitness-outcomes of interest to social scientists and biologists alike. They thus emphasize the utility of cross-species analysis for understanding the predictors of, and mechanisms underlying, social gradients in health.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Genetic Fitness
Humans
Longevity / genetics
Longevity / physiology*
Mammals / genetics
Mammals / physiology*
Social Determinants of Health*
Social Environment

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding