Rural Embodiment and Community Health: an Anthropological Case Study on Biocultural Determinants of Tropical Disease Infection and Immune System Development in the USA

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Biocultural methods are critically important for identifying environmental and socioeconomic factors linked with tropical disease risk and outcomes. For example, embodiment theory refers to the process by which lived experiences impact individual biology. Increased exposure to pathogens, chronic psychosocial stress, and unequal resource access are all outcomes linked with discrimination and poverty. Through lived experiences, race and socioeconomic inequality can literally become embodied—get under the skin and affect physiology—impacting immune responses and contributing to lifelong health disparities. Yet, few studies have investigated tropical disease patterns and associated immune function using embodiment theory to understand lasting physiological impacts associated with living in a high-pathogen environment. RECENT FINDINGS: Here, we use preliminary data drawn from the Rural Embodiment and Community Health (REACH) study to assess whether pathogen exposure and immune stimulation within a sample of children from the Mississippi Delta are associated with household income. We also test whether immune marker levels—assessed with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays using dried blood spot samples—vary between the REACH sample and a similarly aged nationally representative NHANES sample. Immune marker levels did not differ significantly between REACH participants living below vs. above the federal poverty line, yet immunoglobulin E levels—a marker of macroparasite infection—were higher among REACH study participants compared to the NHANES sample. SUMMARY: These results may suggest community-level pathogenic exposures (i.e., parasitic infections) are embodied by REACH participants with implications for long-term immune function, potentially resulting in immune aspects that differ from nationally representative samples. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40475-023-00282-z.