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The relationship between socioeconomic status and health in two Papua New Guinean populations

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Abstract

Introduction of a cash economy in Melanesia has initiated a broadening range of individual acculturation and affluence. In the course of medical surveys in two Melanesian communities, socioeconomic status was assessed for 1,982 adults and correlated with a variety of biological and medical parameters. In one population that had had only brief exposure to modern technology, we were unable to identity status-dependent medical conditions, but in the other, more economically differentiated group, weight, respiratory disease, anemia, subnutrition, and skin disease demonstrated the biological advantage of the most affluent class. In general, striking differences in health between socioeconomic groups were not revealed in this study and either our investigation of effects of sociocultural change was premature or biological change was too subtle for detection.

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Hornabrook, R.W., Serjeantson, S. & Stanhope, J.M. The relationship between socioeconomic status and health in two Papua New Guinean populations. Hum Ecol 5, 369–382 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889177

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