The second edition of A Life Course Approach to Women's Health is a timely addition to the literature, reflecting extraordinary gains in the evidence on women's health across the life course. This new edition provides an up to date and comprehensive review of scientific evidence and methodological developments in life course epidemiology, as well as new fields of research, such as integrative omics. This text reflects the focus of recent research, advances in technology, and the evolving nature of the field with its application in practice and policy. There are new chapters on endometriosis, lung function, cognition, gynaecological cancer, integrative omics, structural sexism, violence, health service use, and knowledge translation. Each chapter reflects the views of individual authors, within a common life course framework to provide a consistent approach across the book. This conceptual framework is summarised in the introductory chapter, with an outline of each topic covered. Key findings, common themes, and theoretical and methodological challenges are highlighted in the concluding chapter. Over 50 international researchers working on women's health and well-being from diverse fields have contributed to this new edition which is highly recommended as essential reading for anyone with an interest in women's health.

This book provides a comprehensive, fully referenced and readable review of the latest scientific evidence linking women's experiences in childhood and young adult life to their health and disease risk in midlife and beyond. It emphasises the interactive nature of biological, psychological and social risks to health and focuses on the key risks to health for women in developing as well as developed countries. Commentaries on each chapter are given by international experts.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. ​This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint. In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research agenda that proposes priorities for future LCHD research and its application to health care practice and health policy. Topics featured in the Handbook include: The prenatal period and its effect on child obesity and metabolic outcomes. Pregnancy complications and their effect on women’s cardiovascular health. A multi-level approach for obesity prevention in children. Application of the LCHD framework to autism spectrum disorder. Socioeconomic disadvantage and its influence on health development across the lifespan. The importance of nutrition to optimal health development across the lifespan. The Handbook of Life Course Health Development is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology/science; maternal and child health; social work; health economics; educational policy and politics; and medical law as well as many interrelated subdisciplines in psychology, medicine, public health, mental health, education, social welfare, economics, sociology, and law.

Sixth edition of the hugely successful, internationally recognised textbook on global public health and epidemiology, with 3 volumes comprehensively covering the scope, methods, and practice of the discipline

This book provides a practical, multidisciplinary approach to support a broad range of health professionals, social workers, public health workers and others tasked with providing health and care to young adults. The continuum of life begins with the health and wellness of parents prior to conception, followed by embryonic and fetal development, and continues throughout life. Each person’s life stages prepare them for the next and determine their health outcome and wellbeing over time. The text highlights the importance of promoting health throughout the lifespan, the influence of intergenerational health, and the concept of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease in epigenetic processes and embryology. Authors underscore the importance of advancing health equity and lift up some of the ethical considerations in this work. The authors explore specific interventions in four major categories: Lifestyle, Infections, Nutrition, and Contraception / Pregnancy Planning (LINC). Preconception care is defined by the World Health Organization as the provision of biomedical, behavioural and social health interventions to women and couples before conception. Preconception care includes evidence-based interventions to improve health status, to reduce behaviours, individual and environmental factors that contribute to poor health outcomes. This book offers readers evidence-based guidance regarding fertility awareness and sperm health, genetic counselling and lifestyle assessments, as well as mental wellbeing, alcohol, tobacco and pharmacotherapy, and specialist care for those with chronic conditions, including a review of medications. It also covers relevant infections, including HIV and the Zika virus, as well as different types of environmental and occupational exposure. The book employs a framework focusing on health promotion, the social determinants of health, and the science behind preconception care. Strategies for improving preconception and interconception health, including examples from around the globe, are described in detail.

From reviews of the previous edition:'We still have much to learn if disease patterns are to be explained by taking a life course approach... this book provides strong arguments for this approach... the book is a highly qualified starting point for the debate... it will remain a useful summary of pioneer research of huge potential importance for public health.' -Epidemiology'This is not just another epidemiology textbook. It is essential reading for anyone with an active mind who is interested in public health.' -Journal of Public Health Medicine'A truly exciting and extremely informative endeavour for anyone interested in the determinants of human health and disease. This discussion is at the core of current public health issues.' -European Journal of Public Health'The conclusion is of major importance to public health policy. It reinforces the need for a life course strategy, with attention being paid to the mother, baby, child adolescent, and elderly person.' -BMJ'Provokes thought about the origins of chronic diseases, suggests new approaches to identifying particular susceptible individuals and encourages the identification of optimal points in the life course for possible preventive interventions.' -Chronic Diseases in CanadaThe first edition in 1997 of A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology became a classic text for epidemiological and public health researchers interested in the childhood origins of adult chronic disease. Since then the new field of life course epidemiology has expanded rapidly, attracting the interest not only of academics across the health and social sciences but also policy makers, funding bodies, and the general public. Its purpose is to study how biological and social factors during gestation, childhood, adolescence and earlier adult life independently, cumulatively and interactively influence later life health and disease.Contributors to this fully revised second edition capture the excitement of the developing field and assess the latest evidence regarding sources of risk to health across the life course and across generations. The original chapters on life course influences on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood pressure, respiratory disease and cancer have been updated and extended. New chapters on life course influences on obesity, biological ageing and neuropsychiatric disorders have been added. Life course explanations for disease trends and for socioeconomic differentials in disease risk are given more attention in this new edition, reflecting recent developments in the field. The section on policy implications has been expanded, assessing the role of interventions to improve childhood social circumstances, as well as interventions to improve early growth. Emerging new research themes and the theoretical and methodological challenges facing life course epidemiology are highlighted.Readership: Epidemiologists, public health researchers, public health policy makers for developed and developing countries, sociologists and biologists, psychiatrists and social and chronic disease epidemiologists

This open access book examines health trajectories and health transitions at different stages of the life course, including childhood, adulthood and later life. It provides findings that assess the role of biological and social transitions on health status over time. The essays examine a wide range of health issues, including the consequences of military service on body mass index, childhood obesity and cardiovascular health, socio-economic inequalities in preventive health care use, depression and anxiety during the child rearing period, health trajectories and transitions in people with cystic fibrosis and oral health over the life course. The book addresses theoretical, empirical and methodological issues as well as examines different national contexts, which help to identify factors of vulnerability and potential resources that support resilience available for specific groups and/or populations. Health reflects the ability of individuals to adapt to their social environment. This book analyzes health as a dynamic experience. It examines how different aspects of individual health unfold over time as a result of aging but also in relation to changing socioeconomic conditions. It also offers readers potential insights into public policies that affect the health status of a population.