Daniel E. Brown

Professor of Anthropology

Background: I received a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Brown University , but got sidetracked in my junior year by an anthropology course taught by James Deetz. I caught the anthropology "bug" and focused my studies on biological anthropology in graduate school, receiving degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) from Cornell University . My research interests are in how humans adapt to stress, whether of the physical variety (heat, cold, high altitude hypoxia) or, particularly, of the psychosocial variety. I also study ethnic disparities in health, with a special focus on ethnic disparities in type 2 diabetes and hypertension risk in Hawaii. My research has been done in Hawaiʻi, both on Oahu and the Big Island. I am currently serving as the Coordinator of Research and Graduate Educationfor the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo .

Current research: My current research has focused on the simultaneous use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and stress hormone analysis as a means of assessing the response of people to psychosocial stress. I am particularly interested in using these measures to try to understand more about ethnic differences in blood pressure and risk for both hypertension and stroke. My recent research studies have surveyed women at mid-life to examine ethnic differences in symptoms associated with menopause, and I am also involved with research on risk factors for type 2 diabetes in school children.

I can be reached at dbrown@hawaii.edu

Selected Publications

Click here for Curriculum Vitae

Brown, Daniel E., Lynnette L. Sievert, Lynn A. Morrison, Angela M. Reza and Phoebe S. Mills in press Do Japanese American Women Really Have Fewer Hot Flashes than European Americans? The Hilo Women’s Health Study. Menopause.

Brown, Daniel E., Sarah E. Hampson, Joan P. Dubanoski, Amy Stone-Murai and Teresa Hillier in press Effects of Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status on Body Composition in an Admixed, Multiethnic Population in Hawaii. American Journal of Human Biology.

Sievert, Lynnette L., Lynn A. Morrison, Angela M. Reza, Daniel E. Brown, Erin Kalua and Harold A.T. Tefft 2007 Age-related differences in health complaints: The Hilo Women’s Health Study. Women and Health 45:31-51.

Sievert, Lynnette L., Lynn A. Morrison, Daniel E. Brown and Angela M. Reza 2007 Hot flash experience among Japanese-American and Caucasian women living in Hilo, Hawaii. Menopause 14:261-269.

Brown, Daniel E., Lynnette L. Sievert, Lynn A. Morrison Gary D. James, Sue L. Aki, Phoebe Mills and Michaelyn B. Etrata (2003) A Comparison of Day-Night Blood Pressure Variation Between Normotensive Japanese-American and Caucasian School Teachers in Hawaii. Journal of Hypertension, 21:2045-2051.

Brown, Daniel E., Lynnette Leidy Sievert, Sue L. Aki, Phoebe S. Mills, Michaelyn B. Etrata, Rena N.K. Paopao and Gary D. James 2001 Effects of age, ethnicity and menopause on ambulatory blood pressure: Japanese-American and Caucasian teachers in Hawaii, American Journal of Human Biology, 13:486-493.

Brown, Daniel E. and Gary D. James 2000 Physiological stress responses in Filipino-American immigrant nurses: The effects of residence time, lifestyle and job strain, Psychosomatic Medicine, 62:394-400.

Garruto, Ralph M., Michael A. Little, Gary D. James and Daniel E. Brown 1999 Natural experimental models: The global search for biomedical paradigms among traditional, modernizing, and modern populations, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96:10536-10543.

Brown, Daniel E., Gary D. James and Lea Nordloh 1998 Comparison of factors affecting daily variation of blood pressure in Filipino-American and Caucasian nurses in Hawaii , American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 106:373-383.

Kormondy, Edward J. and Daniel E. Brown 1998 Fundamentals of Human Ecology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. xix + 503 pp.

James, Gary D. and Daniel E. Brown 1997 The biological stress response and lifestyle: Catecholamines and blood pressure, Annual Review of Anthropology, 26:313-335.

Hanna, Joel M. and Daniel E. Brown 1983 Human heat tolerance: An anthropological perspective. Annual Review of Anthropology, 12:259-284.

Brown, Daniel E. 1982 Physiological stress and culture change in a group of Filipino-Americans: A preliminary investigation. Annals of Human Biology, 9:553-563.

Brown, Daniel E. 1981 General stress in anthropological fieldwork. American Anthropologist, 83(1):74-92.

Hanna, Joel M. and Daniel E. Brown 1979 Human heat tolerance: Biological and cultural adaptations. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 22:163-186.