Dr. Holly Dygert says people are often surprised to hear that factors beyond genetics determine health outcomes.
“In the United States, there’s a huge emphasis on genetics in determining health patterns,” says the sociology and anthropology lecturer in Bryant’s College of Arts and Sciences. “Social determinants of health (SDOH) draws attention to the various social factors such as economic, medical, social, and community contexts that shape health outcomes.”
This spring, Dygert will be speaking on this topic in his “Social Determinants of Health” course. This course is part of the university’s new Sociology and Anthropology major, where students explore social problems and their roots to learn how individual, group, and organizational behavior can respond to social problems. Today’s challenge. In Ms. Dygert’s class, students examine her SDOH in a variety of global contexts and explore policies and approaches to solving public health problems that leverage the field of medical anthropology.
Scientists have been investigating non-medical factors that affect our health since the early 19th century, but SDOH has shown that during the pandemic people are measuring their personal resistance to COVID-19 by economic and ethnic indicators. It attracted attention as people witnessed how susceptibility is determined. Companies with the least available resources were the most affected.
Although integrating SDOH into mainstream medicine is still in its infancy, Dygert says there are many efforts being made to address today’s health inequities. She points to Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician who founded a clinic in Haiti, as a powerful force moving toward health equity. He realized that people were unable to get to his facility due to a lack of transportation, so he began including funding for donkey transportation in his grant applications. This has improved access to care for individuals.
“Paul’s work has been really influential in getting people to think beyond the clinic and more broadly about the social contexts in which they live,” Dygert says.
Other medical anthropologists have created case studies to help physicians recognize how to diagnose SDOH. Dygert points out that medical residents often read case studies that primarily focus on the biological processes that diagnose diseases.
“The fact that some major medical journals are producing case studies to train students on how to view and act on SDOH is extremely important,” says Dygert.
As a global anthropologist specializing in economic development, gender, indigenous rights and multiculturalism, youth, and reproductive health, Ms. Dygert believes that the fields of anthropology and sociology are critical to health equity. We believe this is an exciting frontier.
“We have made incredible progress in improving the experiences of people around the world. Working in this field can be difficult, as there are still many things we are struggling with, but here we are. It’s important to study because it’s a place where people can shape the future and contribute to positive change,” says Dygert.