{"title":"Ageing and disease risk factors: A new paleoepidemiological methodology for understanding disease in the past","authors":"Jo Appleby","doi":"10.1016/j.ijpp.2023.11.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><p>To outline a methodology that enables the reconstruction of age-related disease risk in past societies.</p></div><div><h3>Materials</h3><p>Modern epidemiological evidence considering risk factors for age-related disease is combined with contextual information about an archaeological society of interest.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Data gathered is used to create a qualitative population-specific risk model for the disease of interest. To provide a case study, a risk model is constructed for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in the Eastern English Bronze Age.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>This enables the first rigorous approach to reconstructing age-related disease risk in the past. A risk model shows a high degree of COPD risk in the Eastern English Bronze Age, with a major contribution from indoor airborne pollution and agricultural practices.</p></div><div><h3>Significance</h3><p>This represents a significant new approach in human paleopathology, facilitating understanding of the occurrence of a wide variety of diseases in the past, without the need for well-preserved skeletons of identified elderly individuals.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>The risk models generated are, of necessity, qualitative rather than quantitative, since we are unable to calculate the size of risk factors in the past with certainty.</p></div><div><h3>Suggestions for further research</h3><p>The methodology could be applied to a wide variety of diseases and for many past societies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48817,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Paleopathology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879981723000736/pdfft?md5=09b247a4e02d8c623ef30e422a6cb7df&pid=1-s2.0-S1879981723000736-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Paleopathology","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879981723000736","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PALEONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives
To outline a methodology that enables the reconstruction of age-related disease risk in past societies.
Materials
Modern epidemiological evidence considering risk factors for age-related disease is combined with contextual information about an archaeological society of interest.
Methods
Data gathered is used to create a qualitative population-specific risk model for the disease of interest. To provide a case study, a risk model is constructed for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in the Eastern English Bronze Age.
Results
This enables the first rigorous approach to reconstructing age-related disease risk in the past. A risk model shows a high degree of COPD risk in the Eastern English Bronze Age, with a major contribution from indoor airborne pollution and agricultural practices.
Significance
This represents a significant new approach in human paleopathology, facilitating understanding of the occurrence of a wide variety of diseases in the past, without the need for well-preserved skeletons of identified elderly individuals.
Limitations
The risk models generated are, of necessity, qualitative rather than quantitative, since we are unable to calculate the size of risk factors in the past with certainty.
Suggestions for further research
The methodology could be applied to a wide variety of diseases and for many past societies.
期刊介绍：
Paleopathology is the study and application of methods and techniques for investigating diseases and related conditions from skeletal and soft tissue remains. The International Journal of Paleopathology (IJPP) will publish original and significant articles on human and animal (including hominids) disease, based upon the study of physical remains, including osseous, dental, and preserved soft tissues at a range of methodological levels, from direct observation to molecular, chemical, histological and radiographic analysis. Discussion of ways in which these methods can be applied to the reconstruction of health, disease and life histories in the past is central to the discipline, so the journal would also encourage papers covering interpretive and theoretical issues, and those that place the study of disease at the centre of a bioarchaeological or biocultural approach. Papers dealing with historical evidence relating to disease in the past (rather than history of medicine) will also be published. The journal will also accept significant studies that applied previously developed techniques to new materials, setting the research in the context of current debates on past human and animal health.
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
分享
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
扫码关注我们
