Socioeconomic status effects on health vary between rural and urban Turkana.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Understanding the social determinants of health is a major goal in evolutionary biology and human health research. Low socioeconomic status (often operationalized as absolute material wealth) is consistently associated with chronic stress, poor health and premature death in high-income countries. However, the degree to which wealth gradients in health are universal-or are instead made even steeper under contemporary, post-industrial conditions-remains poorly understood.

Methodology

We quantified absolute material wealth and several health outcomes among a population of traditional pastoralists, the Turkana of northwest Kenya, who are currently transitioning toward a more urban, market-integrated lifestyle. We assessed whether wealth associations wit

SUBMITTER: Lea AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8697843 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature