Economic access influences degenerative spine disease outcomes at rural Late Medieval Villamagna (Lazio, IT )

Bibliographic Data

ID8321751
AuthorsK M Kinkopf (0000-0003-4252-6492, Department of Geography and Anthropology California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Pomona California USA, corresponding author), Sabrina C Agarwal (0000-0003-0543-0053, Department of Anthropology University of California Berkeley Berkeley California USA), Caroline Goodson (0000-0003-2925-2984, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge), Patrick Beauchesne (0000-0002-5800-9732, Department of Behavioral Sciences University of Michigan, Dearborn Dearborn Michigan USA), Trent Trombley (0000-0003-0474-4800, Department of Anthropology University of California Berkeley Berkeley California USA), Francesca Candilio (0000-0002-4668-1361, Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Cagliari ele province di Oristano e Sud Sardegna Cagliari Italy), Mauro Rubini (0000-0001-5923-0431, Department of Archaeology Foggia University Foggia Italy), Alfredo Coppa (0000-0002-7708-2484, Department of Environmental Biology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy)
Year2021
Volume174
Issue3
Pages500-518
Publication date2021-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.24180
PMID33247981
OpenAlexW3106961973
LanguageIT
References cited100

OBJECTIVES: Degenerative joint disease in the spine is heavily influenced by genetic, environmental, and epigenetic factors, as well as exacerbated by physical activity and injury. The objective of this study was to investigate the multivariate relationship between known predictors of degenerative joint disease in the spine, such as age and sex, with mortuary indicators of economic access such as grave inclusions, burial location, and burial type. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The presence and severity of vertebral osteophytosis (VO) and vertebral osteoarthritis (VOA) was recorded for the vertebral columns of N = 106 adult individuals from the Late Medieval period at the rural monastery of San Pietro at Villamagna in Lazio, Italy (1300-1450 AD). Multiple skeletal indicators of degenerative joint disease, morphological sex, and age were compared with differences in mortuary treatment across four regions of the spine. RESULTS: There are marked differences in severe joint disease outcome between groups with more and less economic access. Relative risk ratios suggest that males and females with less economic access have elevated risk for VO and VOA in specific spine regions, although this effect is reduced among females. DISCUSSION: Current research on the consequences of economic and social inequality point to the important role of economic inequality in shaping disease outcomes. Our results suggest that biocultural effects of reduced economic access at the intraclass level may increase vulnerability to the downstream effects of risk exposure (e.g., biomechanical injure, physical activity, biochemical imbalance), and ultimately increase the risk and prevalence for severe degenerative disease outcomes in medieval Italy

Bioinformatics · Biology · Disease · Geography · SPINE (molecular biology) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Spine and Intervertebral Disc Pathology · Spondyloarthritis Studies and Treatments · Gerontology