Marklein Kathryn E, Leahy Rachael E, Crews Douglas E
Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210.
College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2016 Oct;161(2):208-25. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23019. Epub 2016 Jun 17.
Stress plays an important role in the etiology of multiple morbid and mortal outcomes among the living. Drawing on health paradigms constructed among the living augments our evolving knowledge of relationships between stress and health. Therefore, elucidating relationships between stress and both chronic and acute skeletal lesions may help clarify our understanding of long-term health trends in the past. In this study, we propose an index of "skeletal frailty," based on models of frailty used to evaluate the life-long effects of stress on health among living populations. Here, we assess the possible applicability of frailty to archaeological populations. The skeletal frailty index (SFI) is proposed as a methodological liaison between advances made by biological anthropologists studying relationships between stress and health among the living and bioarchaeologists studying stress and health among the dead. In a case study examining skeletal stress in Medieval London, the SFI is applied to nonmonastic (N = 60) and monastic (N = 74) samples. We used analysis of variance/analysis of covariance to compare SFI values between nonmonastic-monastic groups, sexes, and age cohorts. Results indicate higher lifetime morbidity among monastic groups. These results complement previous bioarchaeological findings on the same London populations, wherein lower risks of mortality and longer lifespans were observed for monastic populations. SFI data reflect the morbidity-mortality paradox observed in modern populations and accompany recent findings in bioarchaeology of variation in Medieval monastic and nonmonastic "health." Ultimately, this study demonstrates the SFI's utility in bioarchaeology, through its application of commonly assessed skeletal biomarkers, its ease of applicability, and its potential usefulness for assessing changes in skeletal health over time and across specific geographies.
压力在生者的多种致病和致命后果的病因中起着重要作用。借鉴在生者中构建的健康范式，能增强我们对压力与健康之间关系的不断发展的认识。因此，阐明压力与慢性和急性骨骼病变之间的关系，可能有助于澄清我们对过去长期健康趋势的理解。在本研究中，我们基于用于评估压力对生者健康的终身影响的脆弱性模型，提出了一个“骨骼脆弱性”指数。在此，我们评估了脆弱性对考古人群的可能适用性。骨骼脆弱性指数（SFI）被提议作为研究生者中压力与健康关系的生物人类学家和研究死者中压力与健康关系的生物考古学家所取得进展之间的一种方法学联系。在一项研究中世纪伦敦骨骼压力的案例研究中，SFI被应用于非修道院（N = 60）和修道院（N = 74）样本。我们使用方差分析/协方差分析来比较非修道院 - 修道院群体、性别和年龄队列之间的SFI值。结果表明修道院群体的终身发病率更高。这些结果补充了之前关于同一伦敦人群的生物考古学发现，其中观察到修道院人群的死亡风险较低且寿命较长。SFI数据反映了现代人群中观察到的发病率 - 死亡率悖论，并与生物考古学中关于中世纪修道院和非修道院“健康”差异的最新发现相一致。最终，本研究通过其对常用评估的骨骼生物标志物的应用、易于适用性以及对评估骨骼健康随时间和特定地理区域变化的潜在有用性，证明了SFI在生物考古学中的效用。
