Title: The life-course approach to health [editorial]

POPLINE Document Number: 299882

Author(s):

Yu S

Source citation:

American Journal of Public Health, 2006 May;96(5):768.

Abstract:

In this issue, several authors present work on the life-course approach to health and disease. Also included herein are a number of studies about exposures in the perinatal period that have long-term effects on health. Increasingly, the life-course approach is playing an important role in understanding population health and well-being. This perspective views health as the product of risk behaviors, protective factors, and environmental agents that we encounter throughout our entire lives and that have cumulative, additive, and even multiplicative impacts on specific outcomes. It thus provides a construct for interpreting how peoples' experiences in their early years influence their later health and functioning. (excerpt)

Keywords:

Critique
Recommendations
Longitudinal Studies
Interdisciplinary Studies
Models, Theoretical
Population
Life Cycle
Risk Behavior
Environment
Demographic Factors
Studies
Research Methodology
Family Research
Family and Household
Sociocultural Factors
Behavior