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The Importance of Social Interaction: A New Perspective on Social Epidemiology, Social Risk Factors, and Health

James Meyers, EdD, MPH

Marc T. Braverman, PhD

Social epidemiology research has provided persuasive evidence of the link between the social environment—especially socioeconomic status—and health outcomes, but has failed to identify underlying mechanisms that might account for the association. The research may have been limited to date by its reliance on traditional epidemiological methods that emphasize a search for specific causal factor-disease relationships. It is time to take the research evidence and recast it to find practical solutions. We argue that the human development perspective supplies a framework for understanding the critical interaction between elements of social environment and health: Analyzing the social epidemiological research from this perspective can help to explain why and how the most potent factor, socioeconomic status, affects health outcomes. Equally important, this alternative perspective also presents health education practice implications.

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