Advertisement
AJPH
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow purchase articles
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Right arrow Get other permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (7)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bortz, W. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bortz, W. M.
Related Collections
Right arrow Health Policy
Right arrow Health Education
March 2005, Vol 95, No. 3 | American Journal of Public Health 389-392
© 2005 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2003.033324

POLICY, BIOLOGY, AND HEALTH

Biological Basis of Determinants of Health

Walter M. Bortz, MD

Walter M. Bortz. MD, is with the Stanford University School of Medicine, Portola Valley, Calif.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Walter M. Bortz, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine, 167 Bolivar Lane, Portola Valley, CA, 94028 (e-mail: drwbortz{at}aol.com).

Clinical medicine and health policy planning find common cause as they seek to define the determinants of health. There is substantial recent interest in the social ecology in which health is embedded. However, biology is where these contributing environmental factors are translated.

I provide a new conceptual framework for the biological determinants of health. The old public health rubric of host, agent, and environment as the features that define the root elements of health is an impoverished scheme, because it does not represent our new appreciation of genetic and aging contributions to phenotypic health. I propose genes, external agency, internal agency, and aging as more operationally helpful determinants that effectively describe the biological experience of the organism.

This scheme has the advantage of differentiating those agencies that are practically approachable, and therefore deserving of increased attention and investment, and those that are currently intractable.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2005 by the American Public Health Association