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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Conditions Affecting Social Space in Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: November 5, 2015
Variability and vulnerability at the ecological level: implications for understanding the social determinants of
Adam Karpati1, Sandro Galea, Tamara Awerbuch
1Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass, USA. aek3@cdc.gov
Objectives:
We examined variability in disease rates to gain understanding of the complex interactions between contextual socioeconomic factors and health.
Methods:
We compared mortality rates between New York and California counties in the lowest and highest quartiles of socioeconomic status (SES), assessed rate variability between counties for various outcomes, and examined correlations between outcomes' sensitivity to SES and their variability.
Results:
Outcomes with mortality rates that differed most by county SES were among those whose variability across counties was high (e.g., AIDS, homicide, cirrhosis). Lower-SES counties manifested greater variability among outcome measures.
Conclusions:
Differences in health outcome variability reflect differences in SES impact on health. Health variability at the ecological level might reflect the impact of stressors on vulnerable populations.
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