Читать книгу The Science of Health Disparities Research - Группа авторов - Страница 61

One of the major challenges that researchers face is understanding how the social determinants of health get “under the skin” to impact health. This requires studies to link specific social determinants of health to biological mechanisms. Several developing research areas aim to investigate such links as epigenetic markers, and how heritable and potentially modifiable changes in gene expression can be affected by nonbiological and environmental exposures [33]. Other examples include biological markers of stress, such as cortisol or telomere length, as a marker for cellular aging. These issues will add to the ongoing complexity of health disparities research. Nonetheless, continuing to develop new methods to elucidate mechanisms will be crucial in the quest to eliminate health disparities.