Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018;5(4):432-441.
doi: 10.1007/s40471-018-0167-7. Epub 2018 Sep 20.

"Under the Skin" and into the Gut: Social Epidemiology of the Microbiome

Jennifer Beam Dowd  1   2 , Audrey Renson  3
Affiliations
Review

"Under the Skin" and into the Gut: Social Epidemiology of the Microbiome

Jennifer Beam Dowd et al. Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2018.

Abstract

Purpose of the review: As the science of the microbiome advances, social epidemiologists can contribute to understanding how the broader social environment shapes the microbiome over the life course. This review summarizes current research and describes potential mechanisms of the social epidemiology of the microbiome.

Recent findings: Most existing literature linking the social environment and the microbiome comes from animal models, focused on the impact of social interactions and psychosocial stress. Suggestive evidence of the importance of early life exposures, health behaviors, and the built environment also point to the importance of the social environment for the microbiome in humans.

Summary: Social epidemiology as a field is well poised to contribute expertise in theory and measurement of the broader social environment to this new area, and to consider both the upstream and downstream mechanisms by which this environment gets "under the skin" and "into the gut." As population-level microbiome data becomes increasingly available, we encourage investigation of the multi-level determinants of the microbiome and how the microbiome may link the social environment and health.

Keywords: Built environment; Health disparities; Microbiome; Population health; Psychosocial stress; Race/ethnicity; Social epidemiology; Social relationships; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic status.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mechanisms linking the social environment and the microbiome
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Harris KM, McDade TW. The biosocial approach to human development, behavior, and health across the life course. RSF. 2018;4(4):2–26. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fiorito G, Polidoro S, Dugué PA, Kivimaki M, Ponzi E, Matullo G, Guarrera S, Assumma MB, Georgiadis P, Kyrtopoulos SA, Krogh V, Palli D, Panico S, Sacerdote C, Tumino R, Chadeau-Hyam M, Stringhini S, Severi G, Hodge AM, Giles GG, Marioni R, Karlsson Linnér R, O’Halloran AM, Kenny RA, Layte R, Baglietto L, Robinson O, McCrory C, Milne RL, Vineis P. Social adversity and epigenetic aging: a multi-cohort study on socioeconomic differences in peripheral blood DNA methylation. Sci Rep. 2017;7(1):16266. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lê-Scherban F, Brenner AB, Hicken MT, Needham BL, Seeman T, Sloan RP, Wang X, Diez Roux AV. Child and adult socioeconomic status and the cortisol response to acute stress: evidence from the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Psychosom Med. 2018;80(2):184–192. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Clemente JC, Ursell LK, Parfrey LW, Knight R. The impact of the gut microbiota on human health: an integrative view. Cell. 2012;148(6):1258–1270. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sender R, Fuchs S, Milo R. Are we really vastly outnumbered? Revisiting the ratio of bacterial to host cells in humans. Cell. 2016;164(3):337–340. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources