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Health Determinants Cumulate Over the Life Course

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Understanding Health Determinants

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Abstract

Chapters 1 and 3 focused largely on external influences on health at one point in time; the current chapter takes a longitudinal view and documents how events early in a person’s life have enduring effects on their health. These events vary by socioeconomic status and so offer one explanation for socioeconomic differentials in health. This chapter describes three main perspectives in life course studies. The first shows how biological programming mechanisms that operate before birth can compromise health later in life – the developmental origins of health and disease. The second shows how minor hazards can have cumulative health effects over time; and the third perspective shows how hazards may act synergistically. To illustrate these mechanisms, the chapter details how adverse events during childhood exert lasting impacts on health, through biological, psychological, and behavioral pathways. Connections with socioeconomic status are summarized, and the chapter closes with an outline of potential avenues for preventive interventions to conserve health over the long term.

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    Ian McDowell

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McDowell, I. (2023). Health Determinants Cumulate Over the Life Course. In: Understanding Health Determinants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28986-6_5

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