What is a life course approach to health and wellbeing?
A life course perspective has been actively promoted by many disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, sociology, demography, biology and epidemiology (Cairns et al 1996, Magnusson 1996, Panter-Brick and Worthman 1999, Henry and Ulijaszek 1996, Giele and Elder 1998, Kuh and Ben-Shlomo 1997, Kuh and Hardy 2002). Based on recent epidemiological frameworks, a life course approach studies the long-term effects on health and wellbeing of physical and social risk or protective factors during gestation, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood and later adult life. Investigating the independent, cumulative and interactive effects on health and wellbeing of factors at each life stage helps to elucidate underlying biological, behavioural and psychosocial pathways that operate across the life span, or across generations. The aetiological insights gained from the integration of biological and social processes are the essence of an epidemiological life course perspective. Life course studies
