Title: The life course perspective: a challenge for public health research and prevention
Abstract: Recently, there has been a growing awareness in public health research of the long-term impact on health of various events and exposures earlier in life. Last year this journal introduced a section with several papers applying such a ‘life course perspective’, which illustrated the contributions that this perspective is already making to the field of social epidemiology.1,2
The first proponents of the ‘life course perspective’ concentrated on events and exposures in fetal life,3 but later studies showed that circumstances throughout childhood and adult age influence health in old age.4 A number of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and some cancers seem to be influenced …
Correspondence: Merete Osler, Professor, Institute of Public Health/Epidemiology, University of Southern Denmark, JB Winsowsvej 9B, 5000 Odense C, Denmark, e-mail: Mosler{at}health.sdu.dk