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Review
. 2014 Aug:28:134-42.
doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2014.03.001. Epub 2014 Mar 28.

From genomes to societies: a holistic view of determinants of human health

Yuyan Shi  1 , Sheng Zhong  2
Affiliations
Review

From genomes to societies: a holistic view of determinants of human health

Yuyan Shi et al. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

Both biological and social sciences have identified contributing factors to human health. However, health outcomes are unlikely to equal a simple sum of these identified factors. This article makes an attempt to put together the information, methods, and technologies that relate to health outcomes from biological, behavioral, and social disciplines. Much of this information was obtained by controlling for the variations of the factors in 'other' disciplines. For example, genetic factors were controlled for in identifying the behavioral determinants of health. Looking forward, better understandings of health outcomes may require exploiting the interactions of health determinants that were identified from different disciplines. We propose the concept of 'systems health' studies, which take health outcomes as the outputs of a system, where the inputs and their interactions from multiple disciplines are considered.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of behavior-related health outcomes that were mediated by biological factors.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Three layers of behavioral and social determinants of health. Adapted from Dahlgren & Whitehead 1991 and Barton et al. 2005.
Figure 3
Figure 3
“Systems health” studies gene-environment interactions, with special emphases on the health outcomes and the modifiable input factors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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