A life course approach to understanding ethnic health inequalities in later life

2021 ◽  
pp. 383-393
Author(s):  
Sarah Stopforth ◽  
Laia Bécares ◽  
James Nazroo ◽  
Dharmi Kapadia
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Life Course Approach

scholarly journals A Life Course Approach to Inequality: Examining Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Relationship between Early Life Socioeconomic Conditions and Health in Later Life Among Men

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor W. Hargrove, MA ◽  
Tyson H. Brown, PhD
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
White Men ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Growth Curve Models ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Racial Ethnic

<br clear="all" /><p> </p><p> <strong>Objective: </strong>Previous research has docu­mented a relationship between childhood socioeconomic conditions and adult health, but less is known about racial/ethnic dif­ferences in this relationship, particularly among men. This study utilizes a life course approach to investigate racial/ethnic differ­ences in the relationships among early and later life socioeconomic circumstances and health in adulthood among men.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Panel data from the Health and Retirement Study and growth curve models are used to examine group differences in the relationships among childhood and adult socioeconomic factors and age-tra­jectories of self-rated health among White, Black and Mexican American men aged 51-77 years (<em>N</em>=4147).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Multiple measures of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) predict health in adulthood for White men, while significant­ly fewer measures of childhood SES predict health for Black and Mexican American men. Moreover, the health consequences of childhood SES diminish with age for Black and Mexican American men. The child­hood SES-adult health relationship is largely explained by measures of adult SES for White men.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The life course pathways link­ing childhood SES and adult health differ by race/ethnicity among men. Similar to argu­ments that the universality of the adult SES-health relationship should not be assumed, results from our study suggest that scholars should not assume that the significance and nature of the association between child­hood SES and health in adulthood is similar across race/ethnicity among men.<em> Ethn Dis.</em>2015;25(3):313-320.</p>

A life course approach for understanding later life sustainability

2017 ◽  
pp. 103-110
Author(s):  
Holly Syddall ◽  
Avan Aihie Sayer
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Grip Strength ◽  
Optimal Strategies ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Considerable Evidence ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
The Life Course

This chapter describes a life course approach for understanding later life sustainability, focusing on grip strength as a marker of physical sustainability, and explaining how a life course approach recognizes that muscle strength in later life reflects not only rate of loss in later life, but also the peak attained earlier in life. We present evidence that risk factors operating throughout the life course have an impact on physical sustainability in later life with particular consideration of the effects of body size, socioeconomic position, physical activity, diet, and smoking. We have shown that low birth weight is associated with weaker grip strength across the life course and that there is considerable evidence for developmental influences on ageing skeletal muscle. Finally, a life course approach suggests opportunities for early intervention to promote later life physical sustainability; but optimal strategies and timings for intervention are yet to be identified.

Life course approach to understanding inequalities in health in later life

2017 ◽  
pp. 69-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Bell ◽  
Michael Marmot
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Healthy Life ◽  
Inequalities In Health ◽  
Biological Ageing ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
The Life Course

A long and healthy life is universally valued. The starkest inequalities in later life are how many years of life remain at an older age such as 65 years, and how many years of life that remain free from disabilities that impede physical, cognitive, and social functioning to the extent that they limit the sense of valuing one’s life. In this chapter we apply the frame of social determinants of health, using the life course approach to understand inequalities in health in later life. Healthy ageing is patterned by degrees of social advantage. Biological ageing, as revealed by physical and cognitive changes, is slower in people in better socioeconomic circumstances. These inequalities in health in later life need to be understood in terms of current social, economic, environmental conditions of living, as well as previous experiences and living conditions across the life course that affect the biological processes of ageing.

Suicide, Life Course, and Life Story

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertram J. Cohler ◽  
Michael J. Jenuwine
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Psychological Autopsy ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Narrative Methodology ◽  
Off Time

This article explores how a life-course perspective and narrative methodology can be used to study risk factors for late-life suicide. A life-course approach to aging and suicide requires consideration of age as both social and personal construction. “On-” and “off-time” events and their impact on adjustmenta are used to illustrate these social and personal constructions. Cohort, period, and histrorical events have potentially profound effects on risk for suicide, yet the study of these effects is difficult because they are so often confounded in longitudinal study. Lifelong personality characteristics that are not life-threatening in earlier life may be of greater risk in later life depending on life circumstances such as physical dependencies. A life-story or narrative approach offers an alternative method for incorporating these complicated factors when studying late-life suicide. The psychological autopsy can be considered a type of “narrative” used by various individuals to gain understanding about a suicide.

scholarly journals A case study of tri-morbidity

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-219
Author(s):  
Emily Player ◽  
Emily Clark ◽  
Heidi Gure-Klinke ◽  
Jennifer Walker ◽  
Nick Steel
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Negative Life Events ◽  
Homeless Population ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Vulnerable Adults

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the vulnerability of individuals living with tri-morbidity and the complexity of care required to serve this patient group, moreover to consider how a life course approach may assist. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a case study of a death of a young male adult experiencing homelessness and tri-morbidity in the UK and comparison of the mortality data for homeless adults in the UK with the general population. A synopsis of the mental health and health inclusion guidance for vulnerable adults is used. Findings This paper found the importance of considering a life course approach and the impact of negative life events on individuals living with tri-morbidity and also the role of specialist services to support the complex needs of vulnerable adults including the importance of multi-disciplinary working and holistic care. Research limitations/implications The research implications of this study are to consider how individuals living with tri-morbidity fit in to evidence-based care. Practical implications The practical implication is to consider that those living with tri-morbidity have extra-ordinary lives often with a high concentration of negative life events. Therefore, an extra-ordinary approach to care maybe needed to ensure health inequalities are reduced. Social implications This paper is an important case highlighting health inequalities, specifically mortality, in the homeless population. Originality/value This paper is an original piece of work, with real cases discussed but anonymised according to guidance on reporting death case reports.

Life course, exposure, and ageing populations

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Yoav Ben-Shlomo
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Older Populations

The demographic changes experienced globally mean that the 21st century faces the challenge of caring for an ageing population. Without preventative measures, this will be further aggravated by the successes of medical technologies which continue to reduce case fatality and hence add to the multi-morbid nature of older populations. A life-course approach to ageing conceptualizes the different trajectories by which traits may decline before leading to clinical disease or disability. It highlights gaps in our current understanding of the drivers of such trajectories and periods where the timing of adverse exposures may have a disproportionate negative or positive impact on later life outcomes. This is illustrated with a wide variety of examples and applied to neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia. Future primary and secondary preventative measures must consider interventions across the whole of the life course.

A life course approach to public health: why early life matters

2018 ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Felicia M. Low ◽  
Peter D. Gluckman ◽  
Mark A. Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Life Course Approach ◽  
Mechanistic Basis

This chapter describes the theoretical and mechanistic basis, and public health implications, of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) paradigm, which has emerged from overwhelming epidemiological, clinical, and experimental evidence demonstrating the importance of early life development in influencing an individual’s susceptibility to later life disease risk. DOHaD is underpinned by the evolutionarily conserved processes of developmental plasticity. These enable phenotypic adjustment to match the environment and are effected, in part, by epigenetic mechanisms that modulate patterns of gene expression. This chapter uses obesity and its co-morbidities to illustrate how a life course approach can provide an effective strategy for reducing disease risk and have major policy implications. It focuses on early life as a critical intervention point, and recognizes the importance of taking into consideration the full range of influencial biological, behavioural, and contextual factors that operate across the life course.

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