history of health information systems

A History of Health in Europe over the Past 10,000 Years:
Summary of a Research Proposal
by
Richard H. Steckel1, Clark Spencer Larsen1, Paul W. Sciulli1, and
Phillip L. Walker2

 

This project creates three large databases to reinterpret the history
of human health in Europe from the late Paleolithic era to the early
twentieth century. During this period, human health and welfare were
transformed enormously by the transition from foraging to farming; the
rise of cities and complex forms of social and political organization;
European colonization; and industrialization. With a trans-Atlantic
network of collaborators, we will undertake large-scale comparative
studies of the causes and health consequences of these and other
dramatic changes in arrangements for work, living, and human
interaction.

Most social scholars outside of anthropology are unfamiliar with the
research potential of skeletons. Yet, these are the best source
available for measuring and analyzing very long-term trends in health,
especially in preliterate cultures and in historical societies with
few written records available for study. Even in populations of the
modern era, skeletal data can inform the study of health. To obtain
this evidence, we are building upon a similar but smaller
NSF-sponsored project devoted to the Western Hemisphere. By sending
M.A. and Ph.D. students to museums to collect health information from
approximately 60,000 archaeological skeletons of people who lived at
over 350 localities, we are creating an empirical basis for
reinterpreting the health history of Europe. Following training to
implement our coding manual, these graduate students will gather
information for estimating age and sex, along with data on specific
diseases such as tuberculosis and on several standard health
indicators including height, and the presence of lesions associated
with infections, dental problems, and degenerative joint disease.
Project researchers will also create a second database by scouring the
published and the gray literature of site reports that we estimate
contain information on the average heights of 100,000 to 150,000 men
and women who lived in Europe over the past 10 millennia. All raw data
will be sent via the Internet to a central processing center at Ohio
State University for cleaning, storage, analysis, and eventual
distribution.

In collaboration with archaeologists and museum curators, the graduate
students will prepare brief site reports that summarize the findings
on health indicators; describe the cultural, economic, and social
contexts of the sites; and provide information on the local
environment in which these people lived. These last components will be
enhanced substantially by the creation of a third database, containing
systematically collected information about these sites from sources
available in the field of climate history and from additional
archaeological and historical sources. In addition, we will link the
information on each collection to site-specific Geographic Information
System (GIS) databases containing information on local ecology that
will be corrected, where possible, for historical changes in
environmental conditions. The reports will be published in a new
Web-based journal devoted to the project, titled Global Bioarchaeology,
to be edited by the PIs.

The principal investigators will widely advertise the research project
at professional meetings to seek feedback on preliminary results, on
specific research themes, and on potential collaborators. These
activities will help pave the way to four major conferences planned
for comparative study and publication. Pre-conferences will review
major results in comparative perspective, define specific topics for
the larger conferences, and discuss additional research collaborators.
The anticipated conference themes are: (1) health, climate and
habitat; (2) health and the transition to farming; (3) the social and
economic causes and consequences of long-term changes in health; and
(4) the health of women and children. Near the end of the project, we
will create a program to assist 10 Ph.D. students in using the data
for dissertations.

These data have enormous potential to address other large problems,
several of which the PIs will pursue in other proposals, including (1)
long-term trends in patterns of trauma and violence; (2) biological
inequality; (3) aging and health; (4) health during the rise and fall
of civilizations; (5) geographic patterns of health; (6) degenerative
joint disease and work; (7) analysis of population genetics and
migration patterns using ancient DNA, and (8) use of DNA from specific
pathogens to study the co-evolution of humans and pathogenic
organisms.

1. Ohio State University; 2 UC Santa Barbara

 

This project is funded by the National Science Foundation

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