what is the life course approach to health

• 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. ...
• A life course perspective helps explain health and disease patterns. ...
• We are seeing a new public health scenario. ...

More items...

Full Answer

What is a life course approach?

A life course approach to health 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 …

What is the life course concept of Health?

2.1 What is a life course approach? 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

What is a life course approach in epidemiology?

The life-course approach aims at increasing the effectiveness of interventions throughout a person’s life. It focuses on a healthy start to life and targets the needs of people at critical periods throughout their lifetime . It promotes timely investments with a high rate of return for public health and the economy by addressing the causes, not the consequences, of ill health.

What is the difference between disease-oriented and life course approaches?

Life course perspective – A multidisciplinary approach to understanding an individual's mental, physical and social health. Done by analyzing people's lives through social, structural, and cultural contexts. What is a life trajectory? Your trajectory is simply the path in life that you choose. When you continue to progress your life in a

What is the life course approach theory?

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.

What is life course in public health?

The life course concept recognizes the opportunity to prevent and control diseases at key stages of life from preconception through pregnancy, infancy, childhood and adolescence, through to adulthood. ... Multiple life-long health behaviours are established during adolescence making it an important stage for intervention.

What is the life course health development model?

The life course health development (LCHD) framework organizes research from several fields into a conceptual approach explaining how individual and population health develops and how developmental trajectories are determined by interactions between biological and environmental factors during the lifetime.

What is meant by life course?

New Word Suggestion. [ sociology] A culturally defined sequence of age categories that people are normally expected to pass through as they progress from birth to death.

Why is a life course approach important?

A person's physical and mental health and wellbeing are influenced throughout life by the wider determinants of health. Addressing the wider determinants of health will help improve overall health by helping to improve the conditions into which people are born, live and work. ...May 23, 2019

What are the life course stages?

The four stages of the life course are childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Socialization continues throughout all these stages.

What does human development and the life course mean?

... The Life Course Perspective provides a framework for understanding human development as a collection of sociocultural, biological, and psychological forces across time and places (Elder & Shanahan, 2007) .

What is an example of life course approach?

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.

What are the three themes of the life course perspective?

Three important themes of the life course perspective—timing of lives, diversity in life course trajectories, and human agency—are particularly useful for engaging diverse individuals and social groups.

Why is the life course perspective significant to gerontology?

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.

What is life course epidemiology?

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.

How has mortality changed over the past century?

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

What are the risks of pregnancy in LMICs?

Adolescent pregnancy is associated with a 50% increased risk of stillbirths and neonatal deaths, and increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight and asphyxia. Such pregnancies are especially prone to complications of labour and delivery, such as obstructed and prolonged labour, vesico-vaginal fistulae and infectious morbidity. In societies in which most births are within a marital relationship, interventions to increase women’s age at marriage and first pregnancy are important.70

What are the changes during puberty?

Puberty is initiated in late childhood through a cascade of endocrine changes leading to rapid somatic growth, brain development, sexual maturation and attainment of reproductive capacity. Substantial brain development and psychosocial changes accompany this transition – features that are unique to humans.97 Improvements in childhood nutrition, health and hygiene in developed countries is suggested to have caused a decrease in the age of onset of puberty; the mean age at menarche now is around 13 years for white girls and 12.5 years for black girls.94,98 Young adults now take on characteristically adult roles at an older age in several developed nations and this has led to an increase in the length of the adolescent period.94 The changes during puberty also affect the incidence and clinical manifestations of a number of diseases such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, eating disorders and depression.97

What is the importance of adolescence?

Adolescence is a crucial time for establishing health behaviours that affect health and wellbeing in later life. Half of lifetime mental illness (excluding dementia) is said to start by the age of 14, more than 8 out of 10 adults who have ever smoked regularly started smoking before 19. Studies have shown that 8 in 10 obese teenagers went on to be obese as adults 10.

What is the importance of early childhood?

Infancy (birth to one year) along with early childhood involves children attaining a number of important developmental milestones relating to their physical development , along with social and emotional development. This includes establishing healthy patterns of eating and activity, developing a capacity for self-regulation, language and cognitive development and wider learning skills.

What is the potential for change in intrinsic characteristics as a response to environmental stimuli?

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.

What is the life course approach?

Life-course approach. The life-course approach aims at increasing the effectiveness of interventions throughout a person’s life. It focuses on a healthy start to life and targets the needs of people at critical periods throughout their lifetime .

What is the WHO/Europe roadmap?

In 2014 a roadmap was developed to improve maternal and child health in Armenia. WHO/Europe provides technical support to the Ministry of health specifically, aimed at improving MCH as it remains a key priority for the Armenian Government.