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International Journal of Epidemiology 2002;31:722-729
© International Epidemiological Association 2002

Review

Holism and the idea of general susceptibility to disease

Stephen J Kunitz

Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Box 644, University of Rochester Medical Center, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. E-mail: Stephen_Kunitz@urmc.rochester.edu

Keywords General susceptibility, stress, holism

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


   Introduction
 
In 1974 John Cassel, at the time Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, published a brief article in which he proposed four principles which he thought should inform epidemiological studies of psychosocial factors in disease.1 This was not the first time these ideas had been proposed, by Cassel or by others, but his paper summarizes conveniently the principles that have guided the work of many social epidemiologists for the decade or two preceding its publication, and for the several decades since. For this reason, their historical roots are worth understanding. The four principles were:

  1. ‘In human populations the circumstances in which increased susceptibility to disease would occur would be those in which there is some evidence of social disorganization.’
  2. ‘[N]ot all members of a population are equally susceptible to the effects of these processes’ (e.g. social disorganization). Dominant members of the population are less susceptible than subordinate . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Holism in epidemiology and medicine
 

   Conclusion
 

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