In public health research, a growing appreciation of social sciences

Is it "bad luck" that Katia, 42, a housewife, is now suffering from heart failure, as she often says? Not quite, retorts sociologist Nathalie Bajos. Her anxiety attacks and stress have intensified since she stopped working to care for her disabled son, reflecting a gendered division of labor within her relationship. She also spent several weeks with pain in her left arm and chest before contacting a doctor, a behavior typical of the working classes. And while the symptoms she described were characteristic of a myocardial infarction, she had to try four times before being taken seriously and taken to the emergency room.

It was with this example, illustrating the impact of class and gender inequalities on health, that the sociologist concluded her inaugural lecture at the Collège de France on April 3. Nathalie Bajos was appointed this year to the chair of public health, a sign of the slow transformation of this field of research, which increasingly integrates the social sciences. "It is fundamental, especially in an institution like this, to represent the diversity of the sciences ," she rejoices. "We must not limit public health to epidemiology."

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