According to the World Health Organization, the top leading global causes of death are heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower respiratory infections, lung cancers, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, diabetes and hypertension. Within the United States itself, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the top leading causes of death are similarly heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia as well as chronic kidney disease. Epidemiologically, chronic diseases represent 60% of global deaths and 70% of deaths in the United States. Pathophysiologically, chronic diseases develop and are subsequently managed but not cured over the course of one’s lifetime. Socioculturally, chronic diseases disproportionately affect victims of structural violence as those who cannot prevent the onset of chronic disease lack the agency, financial resources and capability to do so. Moving beyond the biological and utilizing health as a critical lens of analysis as the most salient embodiment of greater processes of historical, political, social and economic hierarchies that are imposed upon the body, this roundtable will understand chronic diseases as the direct result inequity - how inequality restricts working class capability, dictating tastes of necessity and ultimately producing illness and suffering. This roundtable will explore the implications of choices of necessity not just on chronic diseases themselves but more importantly on working class life trajectories. This discussion will then critique inadequacies of chronic disease prevention strategies and will propose effective means of the addressing socioeconomic determinants of health that restrict agency.
About the presentersPeter Lee
An undergraduate in the BA-MD Program with SUNY Downstate, Peter is studying anthropology (sociocultural/medical), biochemistry and Women’s and Gender Studies. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, Peter has conducted fieldwork in Nicaragua as a Rosen Fellow to scrutinize the effectiveness of anti-parasite medication campaigns in the Global South and in India as a Furman Fellow and later as a Tow Fellow to examine the empowerment of women as village health workers.
Joseph Eskandrous
Joseph Eskandrous is a rising third year in the six year Doctor of Pharmacy Degree Program (Pharm.D.) at the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at St. John’s University. His research interests include human consequences of structural violence and inequality, disparities of access to care and medications as a result of constrained economic ability, as well as socioeconomic determinants that produce hypertension and diabetes.
DaQi Xia
Da Qi Xia is the current Roy L. Furman Fellow and an undergraduate sophomore in the Coordinated BA-MD Program at City University of Brooklyn College with SUNY Downstate Medical Center majoring in anthropology concentrating in sociocultural anthropology. His research interests lie in global health, the development of comprehensive primary health care systems, and the impact of chronic diseases on life trajectories.