Introduction

• Published in: Modern Environments and Human Health pp. 1 - 13
• Main Author: Zuckerman, Molly K
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford John Wiley & Sons, Inc 14.05.2014
• Subjects: chronic disease; epidemic infectious disease; non‐communicable diseases (NCDs); second epidemiologic transition
• ISBN: 1118504208; 9781118504208
• DOI: 10.1002/9781118504338.ch1

Interdisciplinary approaches can highlight and engage with issues that are fundamental to understanding the causes of the decline in infectious disease yet are inaccessible to or neglected by traditional methods and national‐level data. Despite decades of research, the cause of the transition remains contentious. Researchers have roundly critiqued studies of the second transition and epidemiologic transition theory for their bias towards national‐level data, Northern and Western European countries, and of large cities within these nations. It leaves regional and temporal variation in the early phases of the second transition as a major source of debate. Studies of the transition that rely on national‐level data also mask variation in relation to sex, gender, race, class, and other aspects of social identity. Studies of the historical relationship between environmental quality, industrial pollution, and the rise of chronic and non‐communicable diseases (NCDs) can also greatly benefit from interdisciplinary approaches.