Health Inequality Network Meeting

September 15–16, 2011

The first meeting of the Health Inequality Network was held Thursday and Friday, September 15 and September 16, 2011, at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), 1155 East 60th Street, Room 232 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Thursday's workshop allowed network members to deepen their knowledge of each other's work and to begin interacting, with the aim of developing a synergistic approach to understanding the evolution of health disparities over the life course and across generations.

Friday's workshop brought together researchers at the frontier of their fields to begin to address and integrate interdisciplinary approaches to advance our knowledge on the developmental origins of health and ageing and to set priorities for future research agendas. The workshop will explore the potential synergies and combine insights from the biological and the medical sciences, together with recent advances in genetic analysis and rigorous statistical modeling, to advance our understanding of important issues in the field.

About the Network:
The Health Inequality Network is a multidisciplinary research network within the Human Capital and Economic Inequality Working Group at the University of Chicago. The Working Group and its component groups such as HINet are sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)and the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics. It comprises a group of world-class scholars on health research from diverse fields, such as anthropology, economics, epidemiology, epigenetics and medicine led by James J. Heckman, under the coordination of Janet Currie (senior coordinator) and Gabriella Conti (junior coordinator).

The aim of the Health Inequality Network is to synthesize and extend insights from several disciplines into a unified approach, in order to build up a comprehensive framework for the emergence and evolution of health disparities over the lifecycle and across generations. This effort will incorporate the study of socioeconomic determinants, genetic inheritance, epigenetic mechanisms, and biological and neuronal pathways, as well as behavioral responses and policy interventions.

Meeting Agenda

Thursday, September 15: HINet Workshop

The objective of the first HINet workshop is to allow the network members to deepen the knowledge of each other's work and to start interacting, towards the development of a synergistic approach to understanding the evolution of health disparities over the lifecourse and across generations, integrating frontier approaches in different disciplines. Key aspects which will be investigated include the following:

• Definition of outcomes/phenotypes: what is health?
• Dependence on proxies of exposure: how to deal with multiple exposures?
• Heterogeneity in behavioral responses: what happens within and across families?
• Critical windows and opportunities for interventions: when shall we intervene to reduce health disparities?
• Latency and nonlinear epigenetic effects: how visible and when are the effects of early-life adversity?
• Will health inequalities always be with us?

Agenda

Introduction and statement of objectives James J. Heckman PDF | PPT | Video

"Health Inequality Network" Janet Currie PDF | PPT | Video

"Critical periods, intergenerational signaling and human health" Chris Kuzawa PDF | PPT | Video

"Schooling and Gradients and Long-Run Impacts of Early-Life Nutrition" Jere Behrman PDF | PPT | Video

Discussion

"A Theory of Ssocioeconomic Disparities in Health over the Life Cycle" Titus Galama PDF | Video

Lunch

"Understanding Health Inequalities: My Interests." Donna Gilleskie PDF | PPT | Video

"A Conceptual Basis for Life Course Biology" Peter Gluckman PDF | PPT | Video

"Using Genetics to Improve Breast Cancer Outcomes and Reduce Health Inequities" Funmi Olopade PDF | PPT | Watch Video »

"Some Idiosyncratic Responses to HINet Priority Questions" Burton Singer PDF | PPT

"Social Interactions" Steven Durlauf PDF | Watch Video »

Summary of key points and implications for future HINet activity Heckman and Singer, discussion leaders

Friday, September 16, 2011

The Role of Genetic and Environmental Factors across the Lifecourse: Improving the Rigor of Causal Inference

There is an established consensus across disciplines on the need to adopt a lifecourse perspective to understand the evolution of health and the ageing process. The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers at the frontier of their fields to confront and start integrating interdisciplinary approaches to advance our knowledge on the developmental origins of health and ageing, and to set priorities for future research agendas.

The focus of the workshop is to explore the potential synergies and to combine insights from the biological and the medical sciences, together with recent advances in genetic analysis and rigorous statistical modeling, to advance our understanding of:

• the mechanisms through which genetic endowments and early life conditions affect the evolution of health across the lifecourse;
• the importance of selection effects in estimating the causal role of social and biological factors relevant to health and ageing;
• the nature of the selection effects, their evolution across the lifecourse and the mechanisms through which they operate.

Specific questions to be addressed in each session are stated below.

Introduction

09:00AM – 09:15AM

Introduction and statement of Objectives James J. Heckman

Session 1 – Lifecourse Consequences of Early Life Events
Watch Video »

» Questions to be addressed:

• What is the evidence from animal and human studies on the lifecourse consequences of early life events? How robust is the evidence?
• Are there critical and/or sensitive periods in the development of cognition, mental traits and physical health? How reversible are the effects of compromised development?

» Agenda:

09:15AM – 09:30AM	Mark Hanson PDF | PPT
09:30AM – 09:45AM	"Lifecourse Consequences of Early Life Events — Evidence from Human Studies" Keith Godfrey PDF
09:45AM – 10:00AM	"Life Course Consequences of Early Life Events? " L.H. Lumey PDF | PPT | Supporting Paper
10:00AM – 10:25AM	Discussion
10:25AM – 10:45AM	Break

Session 2 – Interpersonal Dynamics and Its Long-Term Consequences
Session video »

» Questions to be addressed:

• What are the causes and long-term consequences of suboptimal social development?
• How does an impaired social development get under the skin in animals and humans?

» Agenda:

10:45AM – 11:00AM	"Mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of infant abuse in nonhuman primates" Dario Maestripieri PDF | PPT
11:15AM – 11:30AM	"Interpersonal Dynamics and Its Long-Term Consequences " Kate Pickett PDF | PPT
11:30AM – 11:55AM	Discussion
11:55AM – 01:30PM	Lunch

Session 3 – Biological Correlates and Pathways
Session video »

» Questions to be addressed:

• What are the mechanisms (both biological and socioeconomic) through which genetic factors operate, and translate into outcomes?
• How do we identify the short- and long-term effects of single exposures from their cumulative effects over the life cycle and the mechanisms through which they operate, from the cells to the society?

» Agenda:

01:30PM – 01:45PM	George Davey Smith PDF | PPT
01:45PM – 02:00PM	"Social Regulation of Gene Expression" Steve Cole PDF | PPT
02:00PM – 02:15PM	"The Coalescent: Genealogies and their Properties" Allen Rodrigo PDF | PPT
02:15PM – 02:40PM	Discussion

Session 4 – Psycho-Socio-Biological Linkages across the Lifespan
Session video »

» Questions to be addressed:

• What is the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to health and ageing?
• Do people make their own environments? Do they react to them? How robust is the evidence across research strategies?

» Agenda:

02:55PM – 03:10PM	"Genes, Rule-breaking, and Popularity: Evidence of an Evocative Gene-Environment Correlation" CANCELLED S. Alexandra Burt PDF
03:10PM – 03:25PM	"How Genes Shape Environments" Jenae Neiderhiser PDF | PPT
03:25PM – 03:40PM	"Heterogeneity and Subject-Specific Heritabilities" Peter Molenaar PDF | PPT
03:40PM – 04:05PM	Discussion
04:05PM – 04:25PM	Lunch

Session 5 – Human Molecular Genetics
Session video »

» Questions to be addressed:

• How does molecular genetics contribute to understanding health and ageing? What are the most promising measures?
• What are the determinants and consequences of epigenetic variation? What are the most promising approaches to integrate them into models of behavior?

» Agenda:

04:25PM – 04:40PM	"Stress and Health: The Epigenetics of Human Social Stress Response" Richard Ebstein PDF | PPT
04:40PM – 04:55PM	"Epigenetic Variation: A Promising Biomarker in Health and Disease?" Caroline Relton PDF | PPT
04:55PM – 05:10PM	"Nature, nurture and complex phenotypes" Andrey Rzhetsky PDF | PPT
05:10PM – 05:25PM	Discussion
05:25PM	Closing Remarks and next steps Jim Heckman

Reimbursements:
Reimbursement forms were included folders distributed at the conference. You can also download one here. To be reimbursed, you must also complete a W-9 form. Please visit the registration table in the lobby to pick up a self-addressed stamped envelope to return the forms.