Compounding vulnerabilities: Syndemics and the social determinants of disease in the past

Abstract

Objective: This article explores the theory and utility of a syndemic approach for the study of disease in the past. Syndemic principles are examined alongside other theoretical developments within bioarchaeology. Two case studies are provided to illustrate the efficacy of this approach: Tuberculosis and vitamin D deficiency in 18th and 19th century England, and malaria and helminth infections in Early Medieval England.

Materials: Public health studies of present syndemics, in addition to published bioarchaeological, clinical and social information relating to the chosen case studies.

Methods: The data from these two historical examples are revisited within a syndemic framework to draw deeper conclusions about disease clustering and heterogeneity in the past.

Results: A syndemic framework can be applied to past contexts using clinical studies of diseases in a modern context and relevant paleopathological, archaeological, and historical data.

Conclusions: This approach provides a means for providing a deeper, contextualised understanding ancient diseases, and integrates well with extant theoretical tools in bioarchaeology SIGNIFICANCE: Syndemics provides scholars a deep-time perspective on diseases that still impact modern populations.

Limitations: Many of the variables essential for a truly syndemic approach cannot be obtained from current archaeological, bioarchaeological, or historical methods.

Suggestions for further research: More detailed and in-depth analysis of specific disease clusters within the past and the present, which draws on a comprehensive analysis of the social determinants of health.

Keywords: Great Britain; Helminth infections; Malaria; Syndemics; Tuberculosis; Vitamin D deficiency.