American Public Health Association - Conceptual Shifts Needed to Understand the Dynamic Interactions of Genes, Environment, Epigenetics, Social Processes, and Behavioral Choices

American Public Health Association - Conceptual Shifts Needed to Understand the Dynamic Interactions of Genes, Environment, Epigenetics, Social Processes, and Behavioral Choices

Fatimah L. C. Jackson, Mihai D. Niculescu, and Robert T. Jackson.  (2013). Conceptual Shifts Needed to Understand the Dynamic Interactions of Genes, Environment, Epigenetics, Social Processes, and Behavioral Choices. American Journal of Public Health. e-View Ahead of Print.

doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301221

Accepted on: Dec 28, 2012

Conceptual Shifts Needed to Understand the Dynamic Interactions of Genes, Environment, Epigenetics, Social Processes, and Behavioral Choices

Fatimah L. C. Jackson, PhD, Mihai D. Niculescu, MD, PhD, and Robert T. Jackson, PhD

Fatimah L. C. Jackson, and Mihai D. Niculescu are with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Robert T. Jackson is with the University of Maryland at College Park.

Correspondence should be sent to Fatimah L. C. Jackson, PhD, 301 Alumni Bldg., CB#3115, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3115 (e-mail: fatimahj@e-mail.unc.edu). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the “Reprints” link.

Contributors

F.  L. C. Jackson oversaw the initial conceptualization and the anthropological genetics data of the article M. D. Niculescu oversaw the epigenetics and public health policy implications. R. T. Jackson oversaw the nutritional science data.

ABSTRACT

Social and behavioral research in public health is often intimately tied to profound, but frequently neglected, biological influences from underlying genetic, environmental, and epigenetic events. The dynamic interplay between the life, social, and behavioral sciences often remains underappreciated and underutilized in addressing complex diseases and disorders and in developing effective remediation strategies.

Using a case-study format, we present examples as to how the inclusion of genetic, environmental, and epigenetic data can augment social and behavioral health research by expanding the parameters of such studies, adding specificity to phenotypic assessments, and providing additional internal control in comparative studies.

We highlight the important roles of gene–environment interactions and epigenetics as sources of phenotypic change and as a bridge between the life and social and behavioral sciences in the development of robust interdisciplinary analyses. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print August 8, 2013: e1–e10. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301221)