Is your postcode more important than your genetic code?
In a 2019 study by Harvard Medical School and the University of Queensland, Australia, scientists sought the answer to the age-old 'nature versus nurture' question. Do environmental factors or genetic predisposition play the most important role in the development of diseases?
Big Data... on a grand scale!
The scientists built—according to themselves—'the world's largest database based on health insurance claims of nearly 45 million people including thousands of twins.' They examined the effects of genes and the effects of the living environment on 560 common conditions. In total 23 categories, ranging from cardiovascular diseases, neuromuscular disorders, mental health issues to 'problems' with the skeleton.
Nature versus Nurture
The study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, actually had no major surprises. Genetics had the greatest influence on diseases in early life and on cognitive and/or learning disorders. Environment was the clearest factor in morbid obesity and, not surprisingly, in infections such as Lyme disease, which is spread by ticks. Simply put, more ticks live in a wooded and rural environment than in a concrete urban jungle.
With this study, the researchers actually confirmed what other scientists and doctors have been saying for years: health is often a matter of complicated cooperation between environment and genes. Example: People with certain genetic predispositions are more likely to become obese, for example, if they move to a place where it is difficult to exercise and where it is difficult to follow a healthy diet. Think of a neighborhood with many fast-food restaurants, few shops with fresh products, and inadequate sports facilities.
In the Netherlands
The same picture emerges in the Netherlands, and here too you see differences in health emerging that are related to, for example, socioeconomic status and thus also the living environment.
Health per district and neighborhood
The Dutch RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) has developed an interactive map on which this can be clearly seen. The figures on which this map is based come from the Health Monitor Adults and Elderly 2016 of the various Municipal Health Services (GGD's), the CBS (Statistics Netherlands), and the RIVM.
With this knowledge in mind, you can take a nice look at how things are in your own neighborhood. Always fun! But remember well: it remains statistics, of course. Godfried Bomans already said: "A statistician waded confidently through a river that was on average one meter deep. He drowned."
Source: https://hms.harvard.edu/news/zip-code-or-genetic-code
