Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

10 Opportunities and Challenges in the Study of Biosocial Dynamics in Healthy Aging--Tara L. Gruenewald
Pages 217-242

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 217...
... Research on the biological correlates of social status is reviewed to highlight promising methodological approaches for identifying biosocial connections and for probing biosocial theories of aging. Important methodological and analytical challenges that need to be addressed to significantly advance knowledge of biosocial processes involved in healthy aging are also discussed.
From page 218...
... The result has been an exponentially increasing number of studies examining biosocial process that play a role in healthy aging. Occurring contemporaneously with the increasing examination of biosocial connections in epidemiologic investigations, researchers in the fields of social and health psychology have been identifying the biological correlates of social factors in smaller-scale investigations with more fine-grained measures of social and biological processes than is typically possible in large-scale epidemiologic studies.
From page 219...
... Biological Targets of Biosocial Investigations The social scientist seeking to understand how it is that a given social factor is linked to more or less healthy profiles of aging must first identify the biological pathways in the body that might play a role in differential health trajectories. Then, he or she must identify candidate biomarkers for assessing activity in target pathways and assess the feasibility of measuring such biomarkers.
From page 220...
... . The relevant point here is that the occurrence and nature of expression of such biological processes may well be sensitive to social environment input, and they represent mechanisms through which the social world may accelerate or decelerate healthy aging.
From page 221...
... What Is Learned from Biosocial Investigations? : An Example: Biological Correlates of Social Status The allostatic correlates of a wide array of social factors have been explored in both small- and large-scale observational and experimental studies.
From page 222...
... SES-patterned environmental exposures, including exposure to pollutants, carcinogens, toxins, and adverse neighborhood/community characteristics; (2) SES variations in psychosocial exposures and processes, including psychosocial stress, cognitive-perceptual, and emotional processes, and psychosocial resources (e.g., access to social support, control over environment)
From page 223...
... . Thus, assuming fairly similar measurement of these biomarkers across samples, focus is shifted to other potential explanations for geographic and demographic variations in SES-biomarker associations, including characteristics of SES measurement, cultural variations in the meaning of SES, and its environmental, psychosocial, and behavioral correlates, and the role of social institutions and more macro social factors (e.g., universal access to health care)
From page 224...
... Another aspect of research on SES gradients in biological functioning that is ripe for further attention is a better understanding of when, and how, SES becomes embodied across the life course. A number of life course frameworks have been proposed to explain the role of biosocial processes in healthy aging (Ben-Shlomo and Kuh, 2002; Pollitt, Rose, and Kaufman, 2005)
From page 225...
... Another life course model receiving growing attention in biosocial investigations is the accumulation of risk model. As applied to biosocial investigations, this model posits that greater overall exposure to adverse social conditions (e.g., low SES)
From page 226...
... . Fig6-2.eps NOTE: CV = cardiovascular system, HPA = hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, INF = inflammation, MET-G = glucose metabolism, MET-L = lipid metabolism, PNS = parasympathetic nervous system, SES = socioeconomic status, SNS = sympathetic nervous system.
From page 227...
... An advantage of adding biomarker measures to large-scale, populationbased studies of aging and health is the ability to examine biosocial associations with sufficient power in samples representative of the general population or specific subgroups. Another advantage is the opportunity to track the role of biosocial processes in the development of health conditions over time in longitudinal investigations.
From page 228...
... An example of such an approach comes from the Whitehall II Study of British civil servants, which has been a fruitful source of knowledge regarding the biosocial processes that may underlie social status gradients in health. A substudy of 202 Whitehall II participants examined cardiovascular and neuroendocrine parameters across a workday, with cardiovascular measurements occurring every 20 minutes and 10 saliva samples collected for the assay of the HPA hormone cortisol, at various points from waking to bedtime (Steptoe et al., 2003a)
From page 229...
... Another advantage of the laboratory challenge paradigm is the opportunity to more carefully pinpoint the psychological processes that might underlie SES variations in physiological reactivity. Chen and colleagues have documented that low SES children are more likely to interpret ambiguous
From page 230...
... , as well as greater ambulatory cardiovascular activity during social interactions (Chen, Matthews, and Zhou, 2007) in individuals' normal social environments.
From page 231...
... Neuroscience assessments, including fMRI and EEG measurements, were recently assessed for a small subset of MIDUS participants, allowing linkage to the wide array of biomarkers and psychosocial information collected in the larger MIDUS II cohort. These data are ripe for analyses of how SES and other social factors may influence patterns of neural activity and subsequent downstream disease-relevant physiology.
From page 232...
... A third important point is that other social factors may moderate SES variations in gene expression profiles -- those of low SES who experienced high levels of maternal warmth in childhood were less likely to show the more "risky" proinflammatory gene expression characteristic of the disadvantaged (Chen et al., 2011)
From page 233...
... . The promising methodological approaches highlighted above, including identification of upstream physiological modulators and assessing biological correlates of social conditions in the lab and in the wild, may well help us better understand social disparities in flourishing and thriving and the implications for healthy aging.
From page 234...
... But most biosocial processes, even those that may be most tightly coupled during narrow windows of development, operate in a bidirectional, iterative process over time, nested within multiple levels of influences from the most micro biological to the most macro social. Biosocial studies of health and aging have particularly neglected measurement of bidirectional flows of influence between individuals and upward to larger units of social organization.
From page 235...
... have been found to account for small to moderate proportions of SES gradients in incident cardiovascular disease/events and mortality, while more traditional cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., blood pressure, metabolic biomarkers) have been shown to play smaller, or no mediating roles (e.g., Loucks et al., 2009; Marmot et al., 2008; Ramsay et al., 2009; Rosvall et al., 2008)
From page 236...
... One important focus for the future is the exploration of life course models of biosocial connections, including a greater understanding of the range of social conditions linked to biological processes, the characteristics of biosocial interactions at different phases of the life course, and how such processes operate across time to influence healthy aging. A second important focus for the future is a better understanding of the interaction of social and demographic factors, at both micro and macro levels, in shaping associations with biological factors.
From page 237...
... . Association of cardiovascular disease risk factors with socioeconomic position during childhood and during adulthood.
From page 238...
... . Socioeconomic status, race, and diurnal cortisol decline in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA)
From page 239...
... . Socioeconomic status is related to urinary catecholamines in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA)
From page 240...
... . Early socioeconomic position and blood pressure in childhood and adulthood -- The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.
From page 241...
... . Socioeconomic inequalities in coronary heart disease risk in older age: Con tribution of established and novel coronary risk factors.
From page 242...
... . Stress responsivity and socioeconomic status: A mechanism for increased cardiovascular disease risk?


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.