Transdisciplinary Integrative Ecology Provides a Holistic Framework for Addressing COVID-19 and other Complex Problems
December, 3 2020
Pursuing Health Equity in the Context of COVID-19: The Essential Role of Psychosomatic Science. Scientific Conference of the American Psychosomatic Society,
Convergence research is a relatively new label for collaborative efforts that bring together multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Such an integrated approach has long been represented in the holistic foundations of psychosomatic medicine and the biopsychosocial approach, and is necessary to effectively address pandemic infectious diseases. Emerging from the biopsychosocial concept, Transdisciplinary Integrative Ecology (TIE) is introduced here as a meta-paradigm for convergence research that can be operationalized and applied to support research and policy in addressing COVID-19.<b> </b>Generic TIE principles reflect integration across all relevant disciplines and levels of analysis within a loosely structured framework reflecting the superordinate principle of ecology-that all things are interconnected. These principles can be applied in various ways, but are well operationalized using a biopsychosocial ecological framework that specifies bio-physical, psychological/behavioral, and social domains of influence that are integrated across multiple levels of analysis (Figure 1). In application, the disproportionate global impact of COVID-19 among many non-white, economically poor communities can be understood through distal socioeconomic factors that drive long-standing health disparities and differential exposure to degraded natural environments. At the intermediate level, greater COVID-19 transmission and severe outcomes are seen in densely populated urban areas characterized by unhealthy built environments and limited access to education/information, healthcare, and nutrition. At the person and intermediate levels, residents of such areas often are at high risk, for example, from pre-existing health conditions and risk exposure as essential workers. Psychosocial stress associated with the experience of chronic discrimination and the totality of these living conditions may interact with more distal environmental factors such as high levels of airborne particulate matter to synergistically impact inflammatory and immune mechanisms that are increasingly understood as critical pathways of severe COVID-19 disease. TIE principles support contextual frameworks that can illuminate pathways of complex problems such as COVID-19, enhancing communication among stakeholders, identifying novel collaborative opportunities, and guiding funding/policy priorities.
