ABSTRACT

Lifecourse perspectives have become increasingly common in public health in recent years. In part, this reflects the growing influence of lifecourse epidemiology as well as the social and behavioural sciences in understanding patterns of health and disease. Taking a lifecourse perspective means focusing on social biography, thereby shifting the emphasis away from the traditional adult lifestyle model of disease risk. Within the general field of lifecourse studies emphasis varies in the extent to which biological, psychological or social processes and outcomes are the focus of attention. It is of potential value in public health because it focuses attention on where in the lifespan policymakers might effectively direct their attention. To some extent the developmental origins model gets round these issues because it includes the idea of accumulated risk over the entire lifecourse. Lifecourse studies represents a dynamic and changing field. Such studies are providing rich data of direct relevance to public health in general and public health policy in particular.