VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center (RMRVAMC), Aurora, Colorado, USA.
Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
mSystems. 2023 Dec 21;8(6):e0071723. doi: 10.1128/msystems.00717-23. Epub 2023 Oct 24.
Social and economic inequities can have a profound impact on human health. The inequities could result in alterations to the gut microbiome, an important factor that may have profound abilities to alter health outcomes. Moreover, the strong correlations between social and economic inequities have been long understood. However, to date, limited research regarding the microbiome and mental health within the context of socioeconomic inequities exists. One particular inequity that may influence both mental health and the gut microbiome is living in a food desert. Persons living in food deserts may lack access to sufficient and/or nutritious food and often experience other inequities, such as increased exposure to air pollution and poor access to healthcare. Together, these factors may confer a unique risk for microbial perturbation. Indeed, external factors beyond a food desert might compound over time to have a lasting effect on an individual's gut microbiome. Therefore, adoption of a life-course approach is expected to increase the ecological validity of research related to social inequities, the gut microbiome, and physical and mental health.
社会经济不平等可能对人类健康产生深远影响。这种不平等可能导致肠道微生物组发生改变，而肠道微生物组是一个重要的因素，它可能具有深远的能力来改变健康结果。此外，社会和经济不平等之间的强烈相关性早已被人们所理解。然而，迄今为止，关于社会经济不平等背景下微生物组和心理健康的研究有限。一个可能同时影响心理健康和肠道微生物组的特殊不平等现象是生活在食品荒漠中。生活在食品荒漠中的人可能无法获得足够和/或营养丰富的食物，并且经常会遇到其他不平等现象，例如暴露在更多的空气污染中以及难以获得医疗保健。这些因素共同可能会导致微生物失调的独特风险。事实上，食品荒漠之外的其他因素可能会随着时间的推移而累积，对个体的肠道微生物组产生持久的影响。因此，采用生命历程方法有望提高与社会不平等、肠道微生物组以及身心健康相关的研究的生态有效性。
