How Do Socioeconomic Factors Influence Infectious Diseases?
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Rodney Rohde
In this program:
Infectious diseases are becoming more prevalent, and socioeconomic factors are a concern. Medical laboratory scientist Dr. Rodney Rohde discusses the impacts of social determinants of health and environmental factors on vulnerable populations.
Transcript
Deandre White:
So how do socio and economic factors, do you think influence the spread and impact of infectious diseases, particularly in these vulnerable populations?
Dr. Rodney Rohde:
Yeah, fortunately, I think...and again, I'm not a population biologist or a sociologist or anyone like that, but I have dipped my toe into social determinants of health. I think many people have heard that phrase, and I think it's a really important area that we need to continue to study. Because the obvious and logical things that sometimes we don't talk about are staring us right in the face, whether it's nutrition...we have people in this country that are starving at times, or they certainly aren't getting the right nutritious diets that they need, where they live.
Do they have access to health care? Do they have issues with certain types of disease because where they live? Do they live near environmental factors, whether it's water, or chemical plants or refineries, or poor air quality, all of these types of things can look at socio-economic factors. We can fix some of these, right? If we band together as a country and as human beings and start thinking about how can we better impact by just simply getting rid of certain negative variables that may impact health, whether it's poor air, or can you get a person to the ER in time because of where they live, or because they perhaps need certain types of advocacy or others to help them understand the importance of their diet and what have you. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And so while I'm not an expert in that area, I think it makes total sense to invest not only economically in that, but also in power in man power in human power, so that we start understanding that from a research perspective, and then can we put that into practice so that society benefits.
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