Two Blind Spots: Occupation and Complementary Medicine in the Social Study of Health Behaviors

• Speaker: Dr. Connor Sheehan (Associate Professor, School of Social and Family Dynamics/Arizona State University) 

• Moderator: Dr. Chi-Tsun Chiu (Associate Research Fellow, Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica)

• Time: 10:00-12:00 A.M., Friday, June 5, 2026

• Venue: 1F Conference Room, Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica

• Registration: https://forms.gle/fFTprCgYxiknebvN6

• Abstract: 

Research on the social determinants of health behaviors in the U.S. has made substantial progress, but two important blind spots persist. First, studies examining how socioeconomic position shapes health behaviors have focused almost exclusively on education and income, largely overlooking occupation; despite the fact that specific jobs structure workplace environments, cultural norms, social networks, and opportunities for health-promoting or health-impairing behavior. Second, the behaviors under study have been limited to a conventional set (smoking, alcohol, physical activity, diet, sleep), leaving increasingly prevalent practices like complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) largely unexamined at the population level. This presentation complicates both limitations using two studies drawing on the National Health Interview Survey. The first study (NHIS 2004-2018; n=215,241) shows that granular occupational classifications significantly improve prediction of five core health behaviors beyond standard sociodemographic measures, and that latent profile analysis at the occupation level reveals four empirically derived behavioral clusters: Conventional-Lifestyle, Creative-Intellectual, Higher-Calling Service, and Physical-Production that broad education and income categories fail to detect. The second study (NHIS 2007/2012 linked to mortality through 2019; n=55,023; 5,530 deaths) brings CAM into the mortality literature for the first time at the population level. Cox proportional hazards models find that yoga, chiropractic care, and CAM use intensity are associated with lower all-cause mortality, with pronounced sex differences: acupuncture and chiropractic care are protective among men but not women, while yoga and mind-body practices are protective among women but not men. Together, these studies call for broader conceptual and empirical attention to both the social structures and the behavioral repertoires that shape population health.