Olden and White138 have reviewed the tools and databases that provide new opportunities and a new paradigm for studying how genes and the environment combine to affect health. Racial and SES groups may face differential social, physical, and chemical exposures in residential and occupational environments that could interact with susceptibility genes to affect the risk of disease. Socially disadvantaged populations may also have higher levels of particular genetic variants that could increase their vulnerability to the environmental exposures that they face. Research to date has also given scant attention to the extent to which genetic effects may vary across SES groups or for social categories that reflect the simultaneous consideration of race, SES, and gender. Socioeconomic groups often occupy different occupational and residential contexts. Ellis’ review149 suggests, for example, that genetic and other physiological factors play a larger role in adult SES (education and earning levels) than is generally recognized. These deserve serious empirical examination.
