A Life Course Approach to Women's Health

by Kuh, Diana; Hardy, Rebecca

• ISBN13: 9780192632890
• ISBN10: 0192632892
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

How far is the health of middle aged and older women shaped by biological, social, and psychological processes that begin in pre-natal development, in childhood, adolescence, or early adult life? Do health risks gradually accumulate over the life course or do mentioned factors as a child and young adult have interactive effects on health in midlife and beyond? Are women now reaching middle age in better health than previous generations? A group of international experts critically review the latest scientific evidence on biological and social factors at each stage of life that have long-term effects on reproductive outcomes, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal ageing, depression, body weights and body dissatisfaction. There is growing evidence that the sources of risk to physical and mental health occur across the course of life, not just in adult life, and in some instances reach right back to pre-natal development, or the previous generation. Contributors draw on their varied expertise in epidemiology, endocrinology, physiology, developmental psychology, sociology, and anthropology to identify the pathways that link early life experiences, reproductive events, adult lifestyle and lifetime socio-economic circumstances to later health. A Life Course Approach looks for connections between development and ageing, and between the childhood and adult social environment. It is scientifically interesting, conceptually and methodologically challenging, inherently interdisciplinary, and policy relevant. This thoughtful book will appeal to all with a professional or personnal interest in understanding the origins of women's health.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	xiv
Part I INTRODUCTION
A life course approach to women's health: does the past predict the present?	3	(20)
Diana Kuh
Rebecca Hardy
Part II HEALTH, AGEING, AND DISEASE
A life course approach to women's reproductive health	23	(21)
Janet Rich-Edwards
Commentary
Susan Morton
Breast cancer aetiology: where do we go from here?	44	(20)
Isabel dos Santos Silva
Bianca L De Stavola
Commentary
Nancy Potischman
Menopause and gynaecological disorders: a life course perspective	64	(22)
Rebecca Hardy
Diana Kuh
Commentary
Sybil Crawford
Catherine Johannes
A life course approach to coronary heart disease and stroke	86	(35)
Debbie A Lawlor
Shah Ebrahim
George Davey Smith
Commentary
Catherine Law
A life course approach to diabetes	121	(20)
Helen M Colhoun
Nish Chaturvedi
Commentary
Janet Rich-Edwards
A life course approach to musculoskeletal ageing: muscle strength, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis	141	(20)
Joan Bassey
Avan Aihie Sayer
Cyrus Cooper
Commentary
Jane Cauley
Depression and psychological distress: a life course perspective	161	(16)
Barbara Maughan
Commentary
Bryan Rodgers
Body image: a life course perspective	177	(20)
Lindsay McLaren
Jane Wardle
Commentary
J Kevin Thompson
Part III BIOLOGICAL, SOCIAL, AND PSYCHOSOCIAL PATHWAYS
Endocrine pathways in differential well-being across the life course	197	(36)
Carol M Worthman
Commentary
Elizabeth Barrett-Connor
Social and economic trajectories and women's health	233	(22)
Mel Bartley
Amanda Sacker
Ingrid Schoon
Commentary
Kate Hunt
Life course influences on women's social relationships at midlife	255	(24)
Nadine F Marks
Kristy Ashleman
Commentary
Stephen Stansfeld
Rebecca Fuhrer
A life course perspective on women's health behaviours	279	(25)
Mary Schooling
Diana Kuh
Commentary
Hilary Graham
Overweight and obesity from a life course perspective	304	(25)
Chris Power
Tessa Parsons
Commentary
William H Dietz
Sexually transmitted infections and health through the life course	329	(18)
Ronald H Gray
Maria J Wawer
David Serwadda
Commentary
Andrew J Hall
Part IV EXPLAINING HEALTH AND DISEASE PATTERNS
Disease trends in women living in established market economies: evidence of cohort effects during the epidemiological transition	347	(27)
Diana Kuh
Isabel dos Santos Silva
Elizabeth Barrett-Connor
Commentary
David A Leon
The life course of Black women in South Africa in the 1990s: generation, age, and period in the decade of HIV and political Liberation	374	(23)
Zena Stein
Quarraisha Abdool Karim
Mervyn Susser
Commentary
Yoav Ben-Shlomo
George Davey Smith
Part V CONCLUSIONS
A life course approach to women's health: linking the past, present, and future	397	(16)
Diana Kuh
Rebecca Hardy
Index	413