Publications [#239022] of Duncan Thomas

Chapters in Books

1. Frankenberg, E; Ho, JY; Thomas, D, Biological health risks and economic development, in Oxford Handbook of Economics and Human Biology, edited by Komlos, J; Kelly, IR (June, 2015), Oxford University Press
   (last updated on 2026/01/15)

   Abstract:
   With populations aging and the epidemic of obesity spreading across the globe, global health risks are shifting toward non-communicable diseases. Innovative biomarker data from recently conducted population-representative surveys in lower, middle and higher income countries are used to describe how four key biological health risks – hypertension, cholesterol, glucose and inflammation – vary with economic development and, within each country, with age, gender and education. As obesity rises in lower income countries, the burden of non-communicable diseases will rise in roughly predictable ways and the costs to society are potentially very large. Investigations that explain cross-country differences in these relationships will have a major impact on advancing understanding of the complex interplay between biology, health and development.