Table 1.

Hierarchical Level Definitions

Level	Sub-Level	Factors at this Level Can Serve As:
Macro- Environment	•Health Policy (National, State, Local)	•Exposures that affect individual risk factors
	•Community, Neighborhood	•Exposures that affect biological processes
	•Social and Built Environment	•Contextual variables (87)Contextual variables (87)
	•Practice Setting and Health Care Providers
	•Family and Social Support
Individual	•Behaviors	•Exposures leading to disease
	•Exposures	•Intermediates between the macro- environment and disease
	•Psychological Determinants
	•Socioeconomic Factors
Biologic	•Tissue	•Processes leading to disease
	•Cell	•Intermediates and biomarkers reflecting the relationship between macro- environmental and individual factors
	•Somatic Genome (SG)
	•Inherited Genome (IG)