Stress & child health inequalities : Professor Nick Spencer, INRICH virtual meeting, 15.02.2010 Stress & child health inequalities
Role of stress in HI : Role of stress in HI Stress as mechanism thro’ which societal income inequalities impact on health leading to social gradients
Stress as a final common pathway
Stress as the mechanism of social into biological
Challenges to the stress hypothesis : Challenges to the stress hypothesis What kind of stress & how is it measured?
Societal factors minimized by focus on psychosocial factors – societal factors become seen as psychosocial factors
Life stressors reflect problems of poverty i.e. Societal factors (see next 2 slides)
Variable impact of poverty/low SES on adverse outcomes in childhood & adulthood
Stressor exposure – US rural children 8-12 years (Evans & English ‘02) : Stressor exposure – US rural children 8-12 years (Evans & English ‘02)
Multiple stressors (Evans & English ‘02) : Multiple stressors (Evans & English ‘02)
Alternative hypotheses : Alternative hypotheses Embodiment
Additive & cumulative exposure to socially patterned risk factors including chronic stress
Embodiment : Embodiment “A person’s past social experiences become written into the physiology & pathology of their body. The social is literally embodied; and the body records the past, whether as an ex-officer’s duelling scars or an ex-miner’s emphysema” Blane in Marmot & Wilkinson
Slide 8 :
Slide 9 :
For discussion : For discussion Is stress the common final pathway?
Can stress account for cumulative & additive effects of socially patterned exposures?
Does stress explain embodiment?
Research implications