What is a lifecourse approach to health?

• A. An approach that recognises how exposures and experiences across the life span influence health outcomes later in life
• B. An approach focusing only on childhood
• C. An approach determined solely by genetics
• D. An approach that ignores early-life exposures

Answer: (A)

Health is shaped by a long process, not a single moment. The lifecourse approach looks at how exposures and experiences across the life span—early development, childhood, adolescence, adulthood—together with social and environmental factors, accumulate to influence health outcomes later on. It recognizes that there can be sensitive periods when certain exposures have stronger impacts and that advantages or disadvantages can compound over time to affect disease risk and well-being.

This is why the option describing health outcomes later in life as being influenced by exposures and experiences across the life span is the best fit. It isn’t limited to childhood, it isn’t determined only by genetics, and it doesn’t ignore early-life exposures.