Health Outcomes in a Foreign Land

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvi

   PDF

2. Introduction: The African Diaspora and Disease-Specific Disparities

   • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

   Pages 1-14

3. Genetic Factors

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

      PDF

   2. Genetic Basis of Health Disparity

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 17-74

   3. The Role of Epigenetics

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 75-107

4. Non-Genetic Factors

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109

      PDF

   2. Economic Factors and Health Disparities

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 111-127

   3. Social Determinants and Health Disparities

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 129-152

   4. Behavior and Health Disparities

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 153-170

   5. Health Literacy Deficits

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 171-183

   6. The Impact of Culture on Health Disparities

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 185-195

   7. Psychological Factors and Health Disparities

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 197-229

5. Gene-Environment Interactions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 231-231

      PDF

   2. Gene-Environment Interactions in Health Disparities

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 233-277

   3. Race: a Biological or Social Concept

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 279-297

   4. Translating Health Disparities

      • Bernard Kwabi-Addo

      Pages 299-311

6. Back Matter

   Pages 313-324

   PDF

This stimulating volume uses multiple lenses to analyze the complex causes of health disparities affecting minorities, in particular African Americans, and explains how this knowledge can be used to reduce their destructive effects. Pinpointing genetic, non-genetic, and epigenetic factors underlying health conditions common to the population—including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer—the author traces intricate links among these factors in the current environmental and social context. The section on non-genetic factors in health disparities, such as social determinants and health behaviors, adds depth to the ongoing discourse on public health and health policy objectives. And the chapters on gene/environment interactions outline the vast potential for developing new multidisciplinary frontiers in shrinking health inequities and personalizing care.

Included in the coverage:

 

• The African diaspora and disease-specific disparities
  
• The genetic basis to health disparities
  
• The role of epigenetics
  
• Economic factors and health
  
• Psychological issues and how they affect disparities
• Gene-environment interactions in health disparities
• Race, a biological or social concept

Compelling and accessible, Health Outcomes in a Foreign Land will challenge and inspire medical students, epidemiologists, public health professionals, biomedical research scientists, and social scientists to go farther in their work. A wider audience would include policymakers, government officials, nurses, physicians, lawyers, economists, community outreach investigators, and interested general readers. 

• African diaspora
• African American health
• social determinants of health
• minority health
• gene-environment interaction
• racism
• epigenetics
• diet
• lifestyle
• health behavior
• health disparities
• health inequity
• cultural competence
• genetic variation
• health outcomes
• racial and ethnic disparities
• cancer disparities

“This is a multilayered, interdisciplinary survey of genetic and non-genetic influences on health inequities, mainly among Americans of African descent. … it is a highly readable epidemiological synopsis from an under-represented viewpoint — that of a recent West African immigrant confronting a country founded by immigrants. As such, it offers a new, potential source of insights.” (Fatimah Jackson, nature.com, July, 2018)

• Dept of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Howard University Dept of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Woodbridge, USA

  Bernard Kwabi-Addo

Bernard Kwabi-Addo, PhD, is an associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Principal Investigator of the Prostate Cancer Research Laboratory at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and an adjunct associate professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland. His research work included receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in prostate cancer. More recently, Dr. Kwabi-Addo is investigating the role of epigenetic changes in prostate cancer etiology/progression with an emphasis on understanding the contribution of epigenetic changes as well as gene-environmental interaction in cancer disparities.


Dr. Kwabi-Addo graduated from Queen Mary and Westfield College at University of London (where he received a PhD studying site-directed gene targeting in mammalian cells using the bacteriophage Cre-loxP recombination system as a tool) and University College London in England, and University of Dundee in Scotland. He trained at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, in cancer biology, specifically in prostate cancer research. Dr. Kwabi-Addo has published scientific articles in journals including Nature Genetics, PNAS, Cancer Research, Prostate, and Epigenetics. His book, Cancer Causes and Controversies: Understanding Risk Reduction and Prevention, was published by Praeger in 2011. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Gertrude, a financial analyst, and their three sons, Benjamin, Joshua, and David.

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