Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23153126›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of public health2013

History, biology, and health inequities: emergent embodied phenotypes and the illustrative case of the breast cancer estrogen receptor.

Nancy Krieger

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of public health, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Toward New Directions in Human Biology: A Roadmap for Anthropological Causal Inference With Observational Data.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025
    Article
  2. Theorizing epidemiology, the stories bodies tell, and embodied truths: a status update on contending 21International journal of social determinants of health and health services · 2024
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Nancy KriegerDepartment of Society, Human Development, and Health, School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. nkrieger@hsph.harvard.edu

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

How we think about biology--in historical, ecological, and societal context--matters for framing causes of and solutions to health inequities. Drawing on new insights from ecological evolutionary developmental biology and ecosocial theory, I question dominant gene-centric and ultimately static approaches to conceptualizing biology, using the example of the breast cancer estrogen receptor (ER). Analyzed in terms of its 4 histories--societal, individual (life course), tumor (cellular pathology), and evolutionary--the ER is revealed as a flexible characteristic of cells, tumors, individuals, and populations, with magnitudes of health inequities tellingly changing over time. This example suggests our science will likely be better served by conceptualizing disease and its biomarkers, along with changing magnitudes of health inequities, as embodied history--that is, emergent embodied phenotype, not innate biology.

Indexed as

Healthcare DisparitiesIndividualitySocial ClassBreast NeoplasmsDevelopmental BiologyFemaleHumansPhenotypeReceptors, EstrogenReceptors, Estrogen

Identifiers

PMID23153126
PMCPMC3518369

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.