Tara J Cepon-Robins

University of Colorado Colorado Springs | UCCS · Department of Anthropology

Significance The energetic impact of immune function on human growth remains unclear. Using data from Amazonian forager-horticulturalists, we show that diverse, low-level immune activity predicts reduced childhood growth over periods of competing energy use ranging from 1 wk to 20 mo. We also demonstrate that modest body fat stores (i.e., energy re...

Objectives: Little research exists documenting levels of intestinal inflammation among indigenous populations where exposure to macroparasites, like soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), is common. Reduced STH exposure is hypothesized to contribute to increased prevalence of elevated intestinal inflammation in wealthy nations, likely due to coevoluti...

The novel virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the associated Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) represent a pathogen to which human beings have limited to no evolved immune response. The most severe symptoms are associated with overactive inflammatory immune responses, leading to a cytokine storm, tissue damage...

Background: Autoimmune and inflammatory disorder (AIID) prevalence appears to be increasing in all but the world’s poorest regions and countries. Autoimmune diseases occur when there is a breakdown in processes that regulate inflammation and self-recognition by immune cells. Very few field-based studies have been conducted among Indigenous populati...

Significance Disgust likely evolved to regulate exposure to pathogen-related stimuli and behaviors. One key prediction, that individuals with greater pathogen disgust sensitivity (PDS) will be exposed to fewer pathogens and thus suffer fewer infections, has never been tested directly. To function adaptively, PDS must respond to the local cost/benef...

Background Rising global obesity rates are linked with inflammation and associated morbidities. These negative outcomes are generally more common in low-resource communities within high-income countries; however, it is unclear how frequent infectious disease exposures in these settings may influence the relationship between adiposity and inflammati...

This book provides a cutting-edge overview of emotion science from an evolutionary perspective. Part 1 outlines different ways of approaching the study of emotion; Part 2 covers specific emotions from an evolutionary perspective; Part 3 discusses the role of emotions in a variety of life domains; and Part 4 explores the relationship between emotion...

Objectives Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) —a gastric bacteria affecting almost 50% of the global population and leading to ulcers and cancer in severe cases—is a growing health concern among Indigenous populations who report a high burden of reported poor general health and gastrointestinal distress. We test hypothesized associations between H. py...

Objectives The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and its primary end product, the glucocorticoid cortisol, are major components of the evolved human stress response. However, most studies have examined these systems among populations in high‐income settings, which differ from the high pathogen and limited resource contexts in which the HPA...

Variables were compared using One-way ANOVA tests for continuous variables and Pearson Chi-square tests for categorical variables. The data were split into respective categories to look for relationships between variables within groups. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS version 25.0 Analyses are considered significant at *p < 0.05....

Objectives Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), characterized by polycystic ovaries, anovulation, and hyperandrogenism, is believed to be an evolutionary mismatch disease. Past research has examined PCOS as a uniform disease, despite variation in phenotypes across diagnostic categories, but establishing an evolutionary mismatch requires a focus on ind...

Introduction: Intestinal infections with helminths (parasitic worms) and protists (single-celled eukaryotes) may be neglected health issues in low-resource communities across the United States. Because they predominantly infect school-aged children and can lead to nutritional deficiencies and developmental delays, these infections can affect lifel...

Purpose of Review Biocultural methods are critically important for identifying environmental and socioeconomic factors linked with tropical disease risk and outcomes. For example, embodiment theory refers to the process by which lived experiences impact individual biology. Increased exposure to pathogens, chronic psychosocial stress, and unequal re...

Abstract: Helicobacter pylori infections disproportionately affect certain populations more than others, especially those residing in resource-poor areas. Sex-specific factors may also impact the virulence and pathogenicity of H. pylori. Estradiol, the primary female sex hormone, may contribute to H. pylori by increasing absorption. However, estrad...

Objectives Biocultural perspectives combining methods and theories from biological and cultural anthropology are needed to better understand socioeconomic and race‐based health inequities in the United States. For example, the developmental trajectories of gastrointestinal health disparities based on embodied (i.e., internalized) inequities in reso...

The health consequences of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are often attributed to parasite-caused tissue damage and nutrient loss, combined with immune energy costs. However, this view overlooks additional pathways by which infection can alter host energetics. Here, we take a first step toward defining this suite of energetic pathways a...

Embodiment Theory describes how external environments and lived experiences shape internal physiology and health. Documented disparities in rates of intestinal inflammation and gastrointestinal cancers between Black and white Americans may be related to embodied experiences of psychosocial stress, unequal access to resources, and exposure to pathog...

Infections caused by protozoa and helminths (i.e., worms) are often grouped with certain bacterial/viral infections as Neglected Tropical Diseases because they receive little research attention despite having notable impacts on immune system development and health. This classification leads to the incorrect assumption that non-tropical high-income...

Markers of inflammation are increasingly important in population-based research, shedding light on variation in immune function and health from evolutionary and life history perspectives. Because human biologists often work in environments with limited electricity and cold storage access, more work should be devoted to evaluating point-of-care tech...

Intestinal inflammation is an indicator of serious health conditions, like inflammatory bowel disease and gastrointestinal cancers. As part of the innate immune system, the inflammatory response is sensitive to environmental and demographic factors. The Hygiene Hypothesis posits that reduced exposure to immune-priming pathogens is responsible for i...

Objective Anemia is an important global health challenge. We investigate anemia prevalence among Indigenous Shuar of Ecuador to expand our understanding of population‐level variation, and to test hypotheses about how anemia variation is related to age, sex, and market integration. Methods Hemoglobin levels were measured in a total sample of 1650 S...

Background: The prevalence of allergic and autoimmune conditions has been steadily increasing in wealthy nations over the past century. One hypothesis put forward to explain this is the Old Friends Hypothesis, which posits that increased hygiene, urbanization, and lifestyle changes have reduced our exposure to parasites and microbes that we co-evo...

Background Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections have many negative health outcomes (e.g., diarrhea, nutritional deficiencies) that can also exacerbate poverty. These infections are generally highest among low-income populations, many of which are also undergoing market integration (MI; increased participation in a market-based economy). Yet t...

Objectives: Investigating factors that contribute to bone loss and accretion across populations in remote settings is challenging, particularly where diagnostic tools are scarce. To mitigate this challenge, we describe validation of a commercial ELISA assay to measure osteocalcin, a biomarker of bone formation, from dried blood spots (DBS). Metho...

Objectives: This study investigates bone density across the life course among Bolivian Tsimane and Ecuadorian Shuar of Amazonia. Both groups are rural, high-fertility forager-horticulturalists, with high lifetime physical activity levels. We test whether Tsimane and Shuar bone density patterns are different from each other, and if both groups are...

This study was conducted and presented by undergraduate researchers from UCCS at the Colorado Springs Undergraduate Research Forum (CSURF) in April 2019. Intestinal inflammation can often be an indicator of other more serious health conditions, including Inflammatory Bowel Disease and intestinal infections. The inflammatory response, part of the i...

Economic development is marked by dramatic increases in the incidence of microbiome-associated diseases, such as autoimmune diseases and metabolic syndromes, but the lifestyle changes that drive alterations in the human microbiome are not known. We measured market integration as a proxy for economically related lifestyle attributes, such as ownersh...

Tapeworms are parasitic flatworms (class: Cestoidea). They differ from soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; class: Nematoda) in biology, physiology, and mode of transmission. Tapeworms are contracted through consumption of infected meat or fecally-contaminated foods, and can result in abdominal pain, diarrhea and nutritional deficiencies. Prior to 201...

Background Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection peaks during childhood and varies by sex. The impact of market integration (MI) (increasing production for and consumption from a market-based economy) on these infection patterns, however, is unclear. In this study, STH infection is examined by sex and age among indigenous Shuar inhabiting two r...

Background: Market integration (MI)-increasing production for and consumption from a market-based economy-is drastically altering traditional ways of life and environmental conditions among indigenous Amazonian peoples. The effects of MI on the biology and health of Amazonian children and adolescents, however, remain unclear. Aim: This study exa...

Objectives: Knemometry, the precise measurement of lower leg (LL) length, suggests that childhood short-term (e.g., weekly) growth is a dynamic, nonlinear process. However, owing to the large size and complexity of the traditional knemometer device, previous study of short-term growth among children has been restricted predominantly to clinical se...

Objectives: Accelerometry provides researchers with a powerful tool to measure physical activity in population-based studies, yet this technology has been underutilized in cross-cultural studies of older adults. The present study was conducted among older adults in an urban setting in India with the following three objectives: (1) to compare avera...

Background: Physical activity impacts the ageing process; yet, few studies have examined relationships among physical activity, functional abilities and health among older adults in non-Western settings. Aim: This study tests for associations among measures of physical activity, function and self-report health conditions among 200 older adults (...

This SAGE physical activity (SAGE-PA) sub-study was implemented as a face-to-face household interview in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India in 2010. As with many self-reported health measures, a level of bias is understood to exist in reporting physical activity levels. However, it is not known how well the Global Physical Activity questions used in SAGE re...

Information concerning physical growth among small-scale populations remains limited, yet such data are critical to local health efforts and to foster basic understandings of human life history and variation in childhood development. Using a large dataset and robust modeling methods, this study aims to describe growth from birth to adulthood among...

Objective Low bone density and osteoporosis prevalence, while well-documented in wealthy nations, are poorly studied in rural, non-clinical contexts in economically developing regions such as Latin America. This study contributes preliminary osteoporosis risk data for a rural Colono (mestizo) population from Amazonian Ecuador.Methods Anthropometric...

Cassava beer, or chicha, is typically consumed daily by the indigenous Shuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. This traditional beverage made from cassava tuber (Manihot esculenta) is thought to improve nutritional quality and flavor while extending shelf life in a tropical climate. Bacteria responsible for chicha fermentation could be a source of m...

Recent research suggests that decreased physical activity in old age is detrimental to health, yet few studies have examined the relationships among physical activity, functional abilities, and health among older adults in non-Western settings. Furthermore, much of the existing research on this topic has relied on self-report activity data; however...

The 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study found physical inactivity is the 10th leading risk contributor to disease-related DALYs. Self-reported physical activity, with its typical limitations with self-report, are further complicated in older age by issues with memory recall and cognition in older adults. Light and moderate intensity activities are...

Results of 7d accelerometry and GPAQ interview in a sample of adults from India.

Abstract Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections can result in a variety of negative health outcomes (e.g., diarrhea, nutritional deficiencies). Market integration (MI; participation in market-based economies) has been suggested to alter levels of STH exposure due to associated changes in diet, sanitation, and behavior, but the effects are compl...

http://paa2014.princeton.edu/papers/142610 Recent technological advances in accelerometry have provided researchers with a powerful tool with which to objectively measure energy expenditure and document patterns of physical activity in population-level studies. However, this technology has been underutilized in the study of physical activity patter...

Cassava beer, or chicha , is typically consumed daily by the indigenous Shuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. This traditional beverage made from cassava tuber ( Manihot esculenta ) improves nutritional quality and flavor while extending shelf life in a tropical climate. Bacteria responsible for chicha fermentation could be a source of microbes be...

Cassava beer, or chicha , is typically consumed daily by the indigenous Shuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. This traditional beverage made from cassava tuber ( Manihot esculenta ) improves nutritional quality and flavor while extending shelf life in a tropical climate. Bacteria responsible for chicha fermentation could be a source of microbes be...

Physical activity has been linked to improved health among Western populations; however, little is known about the relationship among indigenous populations who combine traditional subsistence activities with more sedentary/market lifestyles. This study examines the relationship between physical activity and selected biomarkers of cardiovascular he...

Background: Market integration (MI), the suite of social and cultural changes that occur with economic development, has been associated with negative health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease; however, key questions remain about how this transition manifests at the local level. Aim: The present paper investigates the effects of MI on health...

Clinical and epidemiological research suggest that bone mineral density (BMD) in women is shaped by various reproductive factors such as parity and lactation patterns. However, the extent of these effects on BMD remains unclear because of contradictory findings and a focus on industrialized populations. Because fertility patterns in these groups ar...

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a central component of innate immune defenses, and high sensitivity CRP has emerged as an important biomarker of chronic inflammation and cardiovascular disease risk. Prior analyses of CRP variability have reported stable between-individual differences in CRP over time, but a limitation of current knowledge is that it is...

Minimal data on bone mineral density changes are available from populations in developing countries. Using calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) techniques, the current study contributes to remedying this gap in the literature by establishing a normative data set on the indigenous Shuar and non-Shuar Colonos of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The paucity...

Alterations in thyroid function appear to play a central role in adaptation to Arctic environments. Increased thyroid activity in indigenous circumpolar populations is associated with upregulated metabolism, including elevated basal metabolic rate (BMR); however, little is known about the possible health consequences of these climate-induced change...