A Life Course Approach to Women’s Health

Abstract As in the first edition of this book, the evidence reviewed suggests that adverse physical and psychosocial environments in early life affect biological and psychological development with long-term health consequences for women. Since the first edition, there has been a substantial increase in the evidence supporting the impact of reproductive characteristics across life (from menarche to menopause) on women’s health throughout the life course. Social inequalities in health among women are persistent, and a life course approach remains needed to further understand what underlies the development of such inequalities. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms and causal pathways across life is starting to accumulate, with new developments in genetics, data, and methodology. The global COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020, has obviously had a major impact on health, and the longer term consequences have begun to be studied. A major challenge, therefore, for life course epidemiology going forward, is to integrate both the study of communicable and noncommunicable diseases, in terms of risk factors and consequences, with the study of the impact of pandemic control measures on multiple generations of women and girls. Finally, it is pleasing to observe an increase in acknowledgement of the need for a life course approach to women’s health policy and health care.