Status and Health

Ubelaker et al. (1995) studied human remains from six shaft tombs excavated at La Florida, Quito, Ecuador, and dated to the Chaupicruz phase (ca. AD 100-450). They used isotopes to assess the dietary relationship between high-status individuals and the victims of sacrifice buried in the same tombs. 

We have alluded above to the fact that dietary reconstruction from bone can be no more than a relatively long-term average, since in life bone is constantly remodelled. In general, a dietary reconstruction based on bone collagen is likely to represent the average diet of that individual over the last few years of life -perhaps up to as much as ten years before death, depending on the particular bone used. An extension of the isotopic dietary method is to use the differential information available within a single skeleton to study human lifetime mobility. This technique has been developed and exploited most clearly on historic material from South Africa (Sealy et al., 1995 Sealy, 2001 Cox et al., 2001). 

As with dietary studies in general, this technique has largely developed from isotopic studies of other mammals - in this case, the need to trace the movement of elephants in Africa, and to be able to provenance traded ivory (e.g., Koch et al., 1995). 

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Pulmonary rehabilitation results in significant and clinically meaningful improvements in dyspnea, exercise capacity, health status, and health care utilization.10 It should be considered for patients with COPD who have dyspnea or other respiratory symptoms, reduced exercise capacity, a restriction in activities because of their disease, or impaired health status.1... 

Studies examining the relationship between socioeconomic status and health have also been carried out comparing various US states, e.g. comparing the degree of household income inequality and state-level variation in all-cause and cause-specific mortality. In an independent study, Kaplan et al. (1996a) examined the association between income inequality and state-level and household-level variations in total mortality rates. In all cases, increased steepness of inequality was associated with higher death rates overall. 

Wilkinson, R. G. (1999), Health, hierarchy, and social anxiety , in N. E. Adler, M. Marmot, B. S. McEwen and J. Stewart (Eds), Socioeconomic Status and Health in Industrial Nations Social, Psychological and Biological Pathways, Vol. 896, New York Academy of Sciences, New York, 48-63. 

When new technologies are not available to all members of a society, they can exacerbate existing inequalities in the system of medical care. Currently the structure of the U.S. health care system is fundamentally flawed. Racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care, more than 40 million uninsured, spiraling health care costs, and inadequate levels of culturally competent medical care are all evidence of this problem. 

In most animals. Including the human body, this occurs mainly in the upper portion of the. small intestine. The amount and, therefore, the fraction of calcium absorbed from the gut are a function of intake, age, nutritional status, and health. Generally, the fraction absorbed decreases with age and inlake and as the nutritional status improves. The absolute amount absorbed increases wilh inlake and may or may noi decrease with age. The mechanisms by which calcium is absorbed are not well understood. Active transport of the ion against an electrochemical gradient seems to he involved, but not all of the calcium appears to he absorbed by ways of this process, because... 

Mark Cullen is professor of medicine and public health at Yale University School of Medicine. His research interests are in occupational and environmental medicine, including isocyanate exposure in automobile-shop workers, lung cancer in people exposed to asbestos, and lead toxicity in workers. He has published several textbooks, including Clinical Occupational Medicine and Textbook of Clinical Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Cullen received his MD from Yale University and did his residency in internal medicine. He is a member of the DuPont Epidemiology Review Board, a member of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health, and a corporate medical director for the Aluminum Company of America. Dr. Cullen is a member of the Institute of Medicine and served as a member of its Board on Health Sciences. 

Assess health status and health care needs of disaster-affected individuals and families. 

Patrick, D.L. Erickson, P. Health Status and Health Policy Allocating Resources to Health Care, Oxford University Press, Inc, New York, New York, 1993. 

The mouth is the normal point of entry of food and drink. There, solid food is reduced in size by mastication, blended with saliva, and temperature-moderated before being swallowed. Conditions that interfere with any of these processes (e.g., tooth loss) can affect food choice and hence the nutritional status and health of the individual. The esophagus is a muscular tube through which masticated food is transported from the mouth to the stomach. It consists of both striated muscle (upper one third) and smooth muscle (lower two thirds). These muscles undergo periodic contractions in the form of peristaltic waves that push the swallowed boluses toward the stomach. The esophagus has no digestive function but secretes mucus to protect the esophageal mucosa from excoriation. 

In other regions of China the prevalence of KBD has decreased with improvements in social and economic conditions. KBD is clearly associated with the poor nutritional status of the Tibetan rural population. The control of KBD in regions such as Tibet should not wait until the etiology of the disease is found. The eradication of this incapacitating disease needs a holistic approach evolving around improvements in the nutritional status and health services delivered to the affected populations. This should be a political and healthcare priority. 

Resource managers and aquatic biologists need data on selenium concentrations in water, food-chain organisms, and fish and wildlife tissues in order to adequately assess the overall selenium status and health of aquatic ecosystems. Because selenium is depurated rapidly in aquatic birds, resource managers should... 

Liu JJ. (2007). Health professional shortage and health status and health care access. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 18(3) 590-598. 

The term vegetarian diet does not fully describe the variety in nutrient intakes and health status of those who follow such eating patterns. There are many different types of vegetarian eating patterns (see Table 1). The impact of these patterns on nutritional status and health requires more complete characterization of diet and other aspects of lifestyle than such a simple descriptor. 

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