Interdisciplinary research that focuses on combined exposures to social and environmental factors and their effect on health and wellbeing is urgently necessary as working from a single discipline could be resulting in underestimated health risks, unidentified vulnerable populations, and missed opportunities for prevention and intervention. To support the development of a community of scientists interested in this interdisciplinary research field and that in turn enables this field to grow a two-day conference will be held in Portland, OR (October 2020) titled ?The joint contribution of environmental and social determinants of health in explaining health and disease over the life course: Building the field and identifying research priorities.? The first day of the conference will be dedicated to reviewing advancements in socio-environmental health research, starting with a keynote address and plenary presentations from notable figures in this research fields. Invited presentations by attendees will work from a developmental origin of health and disease (DOHaD) framework and discuss how social and environmental exposures occurring during critical periods of development (e.g., prenatal, early life) can jointly influence health and health disparity over the life course (Aim 1). The second day of the conference will include a plenary presentation on current methodological challenges in this field and roundtable discussions to discuss the state of the science, gaps and opportunities to move the field forward (Aim 2). On the afternoon of the second day of the conference, two technical assistance workshops will be offered to all conference attendees and a business meeting for a select group of experts and leaders will be held. The technical assistance sessions will review fundamental methodological and analytic approaches related to: (1) rigorous measurement of psychosocial stress and social determinants of health (target audience: environmental health scientists), and (2) survey of environmental toxicants, health effects, and biomarkers of exposure (target audience: social scientists) (Aim 2). During the business meeting a task force in charge of finding a long-term meeting ?home? for our community of socio-environmental researchers will be formalized (Aim 3). In the long term, activities of this conference will work to formally establish a scientific community committed to increasing our understanding of how overlapping exposure to environmental and social factors affects health and wellbeing across the lifespan. This community will champion the development and implementation of robust scientific methodologies, will procure the integration of diverse perspectives into the scientific discussion of our area of focus, and will delineate research priorities that respond to the challenges of those most affected by adverse social and environmental conditions. The formation of this community will also ensure there is a dedicated platform through which dissemination and collaboration occur for years to come.
Despite a common overlap of social and environmental determinants of health ? particularly among socially disadvantaged populations- researchers continue to predominately study these two sets of exposures separately, which in turn may lead to underestimated health outcomes and unidentified vulnerable groups. To increase the pace of research focused on joint exposures to social and environmental determinants of health, we are convening a scientific conference on October 2020 in Portland OR to discuss the state of the science, identify gaps, delineate priorities, discuss and share methodologies, and explore collaborations. In this the second meeting of an emerging community of socio-environmental health scientists we will also launch a search for a permanent meeting home to accelerate the growth of discovery in this field and ultimately the impact of our findings on the nation?s public health.
