The Life Cycle Perspective, also known as the life course theory is a useful way to understand the relationship between time and human behavior, which looks at how chronological age, relationships, common life transitions, and social change shape people throughout their lives.
The Ambitions of Life Course Epidemiology. Health has been traditionally envisioned as a state, encompassing different dimensions along the lines of the World Health Organization’s long-established definition: “[health is] a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO 1946).A recent discussion of the concept, …
As Bengston and Allen posit in their 1993 text "Life Course Perspective," the notion of family exists within the context of a macro-social dynamic, a "collection of individuals with a shared history who interact within ever-changing social contexts across ever-increasing time and space" (Bengtson and Allen 1993, p. 470). This means that the notion of a family comes from an …
A life course approach emphasises a temporal and social perspective, looking back across an individual’s or a cohort’s life experiences or across generations for clues to current patterns of health and disease, whilst recognising that both past and present experiences are shaped by the wider social, economic and cultural context. In epidemiology, a life course approach is being …
Life course epidemiology investigates the long-term effects of physical and social exposures during gestation, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood and later adult life on health and disease risk in later life. 12 It also encompasses pathways (biological, behavioural and
The life course perspective or life course theory (LCT) is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the mental, physical and social health of individuals, which incorporates both life span and life stage concepts that determine the health trajectory.
A useful way to understand this relationship between time and human behavior is the life course perspective, which looks at how chronological age, relationships, common life transitions, and social change shape people's lives from birth to death.
Life course theory, more commonly termed the life course perspective, refers to a multidisciplinary paradigm for the study of people's lives, structural contexts, and social change. ... Thus the concept of life course implies age-differentiated social phenomena distinct from uniform life-cycle stages and the life span.
Life course theory has five distinct principles: (a) time and place; (b) life-span development; (c) timing; (d) agency; and (e) linked lives.
The life course approach examines an individual's life history and investigates, for example, how early events influenced future decisions and events such as marriage and divorce, engagement in crime, or disease incidence.
The life course approach emphasizes that the health of one age group should not be considered in isolation from that of others, and raises broad social and environmental, as well as medical, considerations.
Life course perspective. An approach to human behavior that recognizes the influence `of age but also acknowledges the influences of historical time and culture. Which looks at how chronological age, relationships, common shape people's lives from birth to death. Cohort.
The life course approach considers health as an evolving capacity that develops dynamically over time and across generations. Health is a component of and a key resource for human development. It develops and changes throughout the life course. A life course perspective helps explain health and disease patterns.
Within the context of work, a life-span perspective holds that patterns of change and transition occur throughout the working life. As a result, the scope of productive aging includes all age groups of workers and is not limited to “older workers,” however that group may be defined.Sep 15, 2015
It pays greater attention to the impact of historical and social change on human behavior, which seems particularly important in a rapidly changing society. Its emphasis on linked lives shines a spotlight on intergenerational relationships and the interdependence of lives.
Abstract The life-course approach takes a temporal and societal perspective on the health and well-being of individuals and generations, recognizing that all stages of a person's life are intricately intertwined with each other, with the lives of others born in the same period, and with the lives of past and future ...
Understanding the impact of transitions within a person's life course is important for social work practice in order to help us understand other people's lives. Although people may experience the same life event, their response to the transition and the decisions they make will be different.Mar 24, 2014
The life course perspective is a sociological way of defining the process of life through the context of a culturally defined sequence of age categories that people are normally expected to pass through as they progress from birth to death.
Life course theory merges the concepts of historical inheritance with cultural expectation and personal development, which in turn sociologists study to map the course of human behavior given different social interaction and stimulation.
When the concept was first developed in the 1960s, the life course perspective hinged upon the rationalization of the human experience into structural, cultural and social contexts, pinpointing the societal cause for such cultural norms as marrying young or likelihood to commit a crime.
Life course epidemiology investigates the long-term effects of physical and social exposures during gestation, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood and later adult life on health and disease risk in later life.12 It also encompasses pathways (biological, behavioural and psychosocial) influencing the development of chronic diseases and operating across an individual’s life course or across generations. It highlights a temporal and social perspective, looking back across an individual’s or a cohort’s life experiences, or across generations to understand current patterns of health and disease, while recognizing that both past and present experiences are shaped by the wider social, economic and cultural context.
Over the past century, changes in patterns of mortality globally have included a reduction in infectious disease mortality and an increase in chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs).1 Though this shift started in high-income countries, there is now a double burden of NCDs and communicable diseases on the low- and middle-income countries. Mortality due to NCDs – mainly cardiovascular diseases and diabetes – is projected to rise along with the economic and social development in these countries.2 The risks for NCDs are also changing due to demographic shifts, changing patterns of diet, physical activity, alcohol and tobacco consumption.3 High blood pressure, high plasma glucose, obesity and overweight are some of the leading risk factors for non-communicable diseases, and thus improving nutrition is essential to improve health globally.4
The critical period model (Model (a) in Figure 1) is when an exposure acting during a specific (sensitive) period has lasting or lifelong effect on the structure or physical functioning of organs, tissues and body systems, which are not modified in any way by later experience, and which results in disease later. 11 Also referred to as “biological programming” or a “latency model”, this model forms the basis of early versions of the fetal origins of adult disease hypothesis. A critical period involves the concept of biological programming, in which an environmental influence causes irreversible metabolic consequences that alter susceptibility to later adverse outcomes.24 Theoretically the critical period model advocates that an exposure during this period results in permanent and irreversible damage. However, in the context of chronic diseases the effects of exposure on structure from those on function should be differentiated.11 For instance, poor growth in utero leads to a variety of chronic disorders such as cardiovascular diseases, but other exposures in later life may still influence disease risk. The latency model 23 (including the concepts of critical and sensitive periods) involves relationships between an exposure at one point in the life course and the probability of health outcomes years or decades later, irrespective of intermediate events in life. For example, studies of the Dutch Hunger Winter showed that maternal nutritional deficiency in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of antisocial personality disorder and schizophrenia among offspring in their adult life (the effects seemed to be dependent on prenatal insult).
Risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, excess weight and dietary factors are responsible for a large share of the global disease burden.3 This can be directly or through conditions such as high blood pressure and elevated blood glucose and cholesterol levels, ultimately responsible for raising the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancers. The transition in Health risks occurring in different populations due to decrease in incidence of infectious disease, changing patterns of physical activity and diet and an ageing population has led to issues such as a double burden of increasing chronic, non-communicable conditions, as well as the communicable diseases in LMICs.35
Recently the need for making adolescent health more prominent in future global public health programmes and policies has been emphasized.9,57,93 WHO identifies the adolescent age group (young people between the ages of 10 and 19 years ) as distinct from children and adults and requiring specific attention. With a population of around 1.8 billion, 10–24 year olds comprise a quarter of the world’s population, with almost 90% of them living in LMICs.93 Though a growth in the young adult population indicates an improvement in issues such as infant and early childhood mortality, it also leads to a surge in health issues related to sexual and reproductive health, substance misuse, obesity, injury and mental health (WHO global health risks 2009).94 Yet, adolescence as a discrete stage in the life course has not been widely discussed within epidemiology. Research and efforts to prevent chronic diseases during adulthood have focused on very early life and the effects of parenting and education in early childhood 12,95.Adoption of health-compromising behaviours during early adolescence can adversely affect overall adolescent development, set the course throughout the adult years and have significant repercussions on the health of the future generation.57,96
Socioeconomic disadvantages have an important influence on health behaviours, as individuals from more disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to smoke, have an unhealthy diet and be less physically active by not participating in regular sports activities than those from more affluent backgrounds .10
Developmental plasticity also uses cues from the environment to optimize the life course strategy for attaining maximum fitness and preparing for a future environment, and can lead to a variation in human phenotype.31 The epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation, changes in histone structure and small non-coding RNA activity provide the basis to the process of developmental plasticity. The emergence of epigenetics is giving insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie such developmental changes.
As mentioned above, housing instability, in the form frequent housing mobility, was a contextual feature of childhood for women and for their children. Residence in social housing, and in some cases homelessness, was another feature of housing instability that contextualized both childhood and adulthood.
Child abuse and neglect, considered criminal acts under the Criminal Code of Canada, play an important role in substance use, violence, and other criminal behaviour in adulthood. We adopted the life course perspective to identify modifiable contextual influences and co-occurring individual, social, and familial determinants associated ...
The theory of intergenerational transmission of violence describes the tendency of exposure to violence or aggression in one generation to increase the likelihood of violence or aggression in the next generation.
A life course approach values the health and wellbeing of both current and future generations. It recognises that: there are a wide range of protective and risk factors that interplay in health and wellbeing over the life span. maintaining good functional ability is the main outcome of the life course approach to health.
effects of socio-economic status. the impact of high-quality early education and care. Improving children and young peoples’ mental wellbeing will have a positive effect on their cognitive development, learning, physical health, and their mental health, social and economic prospects in adulthood.
Therefore, it can provide high returns for health and contribute to social and economic development.
Investment in early childhood, child and adolescent health and development, and preconception, pregnancy and childbirth care can yield a 10-to-1 benefit to cost ratio in health, social and economic benefits. It can also reduce rates of mental health disorders and noncommunicable diseases in later life.
The preconception period presents an opportunity for health professionals to encourage women and men to adopt healthier behaviours in preparation for a successful pregnancy and positive health outcomes for both themselves and their child. This includes:
Systematic variation in the protective and risk factors that make up the wider determinants of health are social inequalities. These are strong and persistent drivers of health inequalities, leading to differing trajectories and outcomes over the course of a person’s life, and influencing life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. Some people are impacted more by the negative influences on health, leading to shorter life expectancy and more years living with disability.
Being in good quality work supports health and wellbeing because work generally provides the income needed to live a healthy life, is a source of social status, and offers opportunities to participate fully in society. You can read more about how work benefits health and wellbeing in the Health and Work edition of Health Matters.