ABSTRACT
In no field of scientific enquiry does the challenge of distinguishing the relative importance of biological versus environmental factors confront researchers as starkly as in the field of public health. To what extent and in what ways is our health affected by our environment, and how much is it due to more intrinsic characteristics that are imprinted in our genetic coding and our chromosomes? The problem of ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’ is an old problem in health research, and one for which researchers have developed a variety of analytical methods. We know now that both matter and, what is more, interact with each other in complex ways. During the last few decades, there has been an emerging recognition among health professionals that environmental factors are not only physical but also social. As women and men, for example, our experiences of health are profoundly affected by a wide range of differences in access to and control over resources and knowledge, decision-making power in the family and community, and divisions of labour, as well as the roles and responsibilities that society assigns to us.
