Early in the PBS documentary “Unnatural Causes … is inequality making us sick,” a public health researcher notes “we carry our history in our bodies.”

And it is this history, including socio-economic status, education, stress level and access to money, that determines our health status and longevity.

“Part of good health is empowering the community,” Dr. Adewale Troutman, director of Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness, says in the film. “Power is a public health issue.”

On screen “Unnatural Causes” will appear on Detroit Public TV (Channel 56 or 6): • Hour One: “In Sickness and in Wealth,” 7 p.m. March 30 • Hour Two: “When the Bough Breaks” and “Becoming American,” 7 p.m. April 6 • Hour Three: “Bad Sugar” and “Place Matters,” 7 p.m. April 13 • Hour Four: “Collateral Damage” and “Not Just a Paycheck,” 7 p.m. April 20 The School of Public Health will host the following public screenings: • Segments 2-7, respectively, will be shown from noon-1:30 p.m. and 5-6:30 p.m. March 18, 19, 25, 26 and April 1 and 2. Episodes will air twice each day; noon-1:30 p.m. showings will be in the SPH I Auditorium (1755) and 5-6:30 p.m. showings in the SPH Lane Auditorium (1690)

Close to 200 community leaders, activists and educators gathered March 12 at Michigan Theater to view “In Sickness and in Wealth,” the first segment of the documentary series. The event, sponsored by the School of Public Health (SPH), the Washtenaw County Public Health Department and the Office of Public Health Practice, was coordinated with 100 other public premieres and community dialogues planned around the country.

The one-hour viewing was followed by a panel discussion led by Derek Griffith, assistant professor of health behavior and health education at SPH; George Kaplan, director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, a professor in the epidemiology department, a research professor at the Survey Research Center and the Thomas Francis Collegiate Professor of Public Health; Jeanne Thomas, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at Eastern Michigan University; Keith Peters, past president of the Ypsilanti Chamber of Commerce; and Ed Petykiewicz, editor of the Ann Arbor News.

While the United States has the highest Gross National Product in the world and spends $2 trillion annually on health care, the nation ranks 30th in life expectancy and 47 million Americans have no health care coverage.

The four-part series takes on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in health, and searches for underlying causes. Themes that emerge include the environment as an independent, disease-causing factor, the social environment as a source of chronic stress, individual power and control, genetic reductionism and the myth of innate racial difference, the interplay of race and class, cumulative disadvantage and community empowerment.

“Social divides have become health divides,” said Kaplan, who also served as a consultant for the series.

Public health research indicates a “wealth-health connection” that ties lower grades of employment to higher rates of death and occurrences of disease. The documentary, however, addresses the misconception that wealth and health care access alone guarantee longevity, as other factors such as race and marginalized status also can impair health.

When a person “is always on guard, or facing racial discrimination, this increases the illness rates, despite income levels,” Troutman says in the documentary.

As a result of this broad effect on the population, “Unnatural Causes” warns: “This may be the first generation to live shorter lifespans than their parents.”

Offering a look to the future, Griffith told audience members he anticipated change.

“Looking at this in a historical context provides a measure of hope,” he said. “These things can be changed if we commit resources.”

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