Life Course Approach: Health, Wellbeing, and Ageing

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LIFE COURSE APPROACH TO HEALTH,
WELLBEING, AND AGEING
Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................2
BODY.........................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................10

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INTRODUCTION
This assignment focuses on understanding health wellbeing and illness and analysing
factors that can affect health and wellbeing through the life of a person, especially in old
age. It describes various factors that affect the health of a person in long run. It
discusses life course approach which involves studying a disease or person from a
young age. This approach helps to understand aging in human beings and describes
various factors that can affect health in old age. Critical model of life course approach is
discussed in this assignment to allow a better understanding of the critical period or
stages where certain exposure can lead to poor health in old age. Various suggestions
are mentioned about intervention in an adolescent can help people to develop a habit of
good health (Hogan, 2018).

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BODY
Health and wellbeing is a crucial part of a person's life and is necessary to attain it.
Health involves physical social and mental wellbeing and is not just absence of a
disease.it is required to maintain health at every stage of life but it usually deteriorates
as the person grows old. Ageing is natural phenomenon which is seen differently in
different individuals. Some are active and independent when they are old while others
are dependent and more prone to diseases and fragile. It is to be noted that
experiences of people in old age differs in different cultures. It is observed that people in
japan grow old faster and have life expectancy of 80 years. People in Asia in their old
age are reported to stay with their children provides them emotional and financial
stability and thus improves wellbeing of a person while in western countries it has been
observed that aged people stay alone and lack the emotional support required though it
makes them more independent. It was observed that aged Asians living in UK preferred
to stay with their family but there are differences and influences of other factors like
migration, gender, ethnicity etc. which can result in difference of opinion of people and
how they perceive old age to be (Karasawa et al, 2011). Ageing is nature and occurs to
every human being but there can be differences to when it starts in some cultures
people age faster while in others they stay young for longer but every aged person in
any culture faces many challenges in the form of physical, emotional or social aspect. It
is natural when people age, they become more fragile and prone to diseases as ageing
brings weakness ad lethargy which is a greater challenge to aged people as they find it
difficult to perform daily work. Aged people require emotional support and stability in life
but many people face this challenge when they don’t have the emotional support and
are emotionally distressed which affects their health and wellbeing. It is challenging for
people in their old age to be socially active and keep up with the gatherings, it has been
observed many people do that and want to be an active part of society even at this
stage which is challenging. it is important to note certain diseases occur to people with
certain age group and people in their old age are likely to be ill because of their
weakness and are at higher risk of developing the disease. It is important to understand
that as people grow and become old they become weak physically and thus lead to
diseases and poor health (Zubair et al, 2015). Health of a person in their old age largely

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depends on their lifestyle when they were young. Poor lifestyle leads to poor health
with people not involved in physical activities and consuming unhealthy food can also
be a cause for developing the disease. There are many factors in the life =time of
person which can result in poor health and diseases in old age (Bonsdorff et al, 2011).
These factors are:
Behavioural factors
They are important to understanding as they affect the health and wellbeing of an
individual throughout a lifetime. These factors increase the risk for a person to develop
chronic diseases as it slowly degrades the body physically and mentally weakening a
person and thus leading to major diseases.
Alcohol: consumption of alcohol is dangerous to health as excessive consumption can
lead to liver damage and also, in the long run, it can make a person weak and fragile in
his old age making him more prone to diseases. It was reported that in 2012 5.9%
people globally died due to alcohol consumption. It not only affects the person
physically but also mentally and when it becomes a habit at a young age then the
person can become dependent on alcohol which can affect their social life as well.
Smoking: smoking also has a major impact on health as it affects the lungs and causes
respiratory diseases and heart diseases. A person can get easily addicted to smoking
and thus depend on it which can affect his health greatly in long run. The highest
prevalence of smoking was observed to be 29% seen in the European region. It is
observed that mothers who smoke during pregnancy likely to have babies who grow up
to be nicotine dependent adults.
Physical activity: less physical activity has become a major cause of diseases these
days. With people living their lavish lifestyles with gadgets in their hands, they forget to
exercise and be physically active to help avoid diseases. Physical activity can reduce
cardiovascular diseases, mental illness; relieve stress, helps in cancer. 31% of people
globally were reported to be physically inactive in the age group 15 and above which
makes them more prone to disease. It has a long term effect as people with physical

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inactivity are like to have musculoskeletal health problems and thus in old age require
dependency and support from people (Bonsdorff et al, 2011).
Nutrition and diet: people these days are not focused on their diet and have unhealthy
food, not realising the harmful effect it can have on their health. An unhealthy diet can
lead to obesity which is room for many diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular and
obesity also makes a person dependent to a certain extent. Most of the people in their
old age are seen to obese with many diseases and yet no change in diet which makes
their life much miserable with physical health issues and mental problems.
Environmental factors:
It constitutes surroundings involving physical, biological factors outside to a person like
life in a populated area with excessive pollution are likely to lead to a number of
diseases and affect health and wellbeing. Air pollution has become a major cause for
diseases in many countries due to excessive use of vehicles and this often leads to
health issues. It affects all age groups equally and also lifestyle patterns in the society
can also cause changes in diet and thus lead to diseases like obesity is caused due to
lifestyle changes involving unhealthy diet and excessive sugar drinks which leads to
high body mass index (BMI).
Psychosocial factors:
These factors involve excessive stress which is usually caused because of low
socioeconomic status. Pressure from society and the responsibility of fulfilling the needs
of family stresses a person which often leads to a way in developing chronic diseases.
Low economic status often causes people to live in overpopulated areas which make
them more prone to developing diseases. There are cases where the mental health of a
person is affected due to inequality or bad behaviour in childhood which often increases
the risk of developing diseases (Jacob et al, 2015).
The above-mentioned factors play an important role in developing chronic diseases and
also affect life in old age. All of these factors, in the long run, make the person fragile
and weak and dependent on others which don't allow them to live their life fully.

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A life course approach can be adapted to study poor health in a community or
individuals. This approach involves studying the course of health in people with all age
groups and every stage of life and considers factors that may influence poor health. It
studies every age group in details and also surroundings of an individual and
recognises factors that can lead to a chronic disease or poor health. This approach
investigates through stages of gestation, childhood, adolescent, young adulthood and
later adulthood and describes the risk factors to chronic diseases in later life (Wahl et al,
2012). It takes into consideration both past experiences and present experiences to
determine the cause and fate of disease or the person. It studies the stages by
considering pathways like behaviour, psychosocial and biological that influences in the
development of a disease and observes it throughout the life of an individual to
understand factors or pathways during the lifetime of an individual leading to disease.
Life course approach brings together both social and medical model to study the course
of a disease in a population through their lifetime to determine the treatment of the
disease by assessing their cause and risk factors. This epidemiological study is called
cohort study which allows studying a population across their lifetime and even
generations to draw results about the disease and to understand factors and lifetime of
an individual (Hockey et al, 2017).
The life course approach can be studied through different models like a critical period
model. This model explains about an exposure or risk factor at a specific period which
lasts for a longer period affecting the health of a person at a later stage of life like in old
age. it affects the physical functioning of organs and tissues leading to a chronic
disease. Critical model is not just limited to fetal life but also depends on later life also
where environmental factors can influence the risk of a disease (Tu et al, 2013). If an
exposure occurs during the critical period it can lead to permanent or irreversible
damage to the health of a person. There is also a sensory period which is sensitive to
diseases or leads to permanent damage to health a in older age like the period from 1
to 4 year in childhood is very important for refinement of the senses and the failure, in
this case, will lead to children not realising or having a sense of environment and this
can affect their social life in the long run. A sensitive period is that time when the effect
of exposure is very high leading to major impact on health while critical period has a

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limited time period where exposure can lead to damage but outside this period, there is
no possible risk on health (Jacob et al, 2015).
Ageing is an important factor that needs to be discussed as life expectancy has
increased with a reduction in fertility rates. Ageing can lead to a number of diseases as
mentioned above like cardiovascular diseases, muscular skeleton diseases, weakness,
and poor immune system. All of these lead to poor health and also makes the person
fragile and dependent on others. Life course approach is usually used to understand the
process of ageing. This approach allows studying an individual from a young age up till
their old age discussing of various environmental and genetic factors that are
responsible for the health of a person in their old age (George, 2010). The decline in the
functioning of a person in old age usually depends on the function attained and
conditions in late life and also development components of ageing. It is observed that
diet in early days plays a crucial role in the development of diseases or poor health in
old age as it causes ageing at a faster rate. Musculoskeletal weakness or ageing is
caused due to environmental influences and genetic influences which lead to
osteoporosis- thinning bone, osteoarthritis marked by a change in cartilages and
reduced muscle mass. There are reports which suggest that birth and infancy weight
influences bone mass in adulthood. Ageing leads to changes in the composition of the
body which reduces physical activity and thus weaken musculoskeletal and
cardiovascular functioning suggesting that people in old age are more prone to
developing the disease. It has been suggested that ageing is usually accompanied with
multiple diseases which are higher in women and in low social or economic class.
Behaviour and social factors in adolescents is a critical period which leads to poor
health in old age (Kuh et al, 2013).
Healthy ageing is a process to maintain functional ability which allows wellbeing at an
older age. Improving health and quality of life in old age is essential to prevent diseases
and weakness and dependency. It is important to note that interventions done at the
stage of the adolescent will bring about required changes in the lifestyle of a person. It
is usually during adolescent that people engage in poor health habits like smoking,
drinking, unhealthy diet, low physical activity. To improve health and life of a person in

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old age it is required to work on the person at a young age itself moulding their habits
towards a healthy lifestyle and encouraging them to implement a healthy diet and
increase physical activity which helps the person to have good musculoskeletal
functioning in old age as well. Educating people about a healthy lifestyle at a young age
is an important step in improving the overall health of a person. Encouraging them to
implement healthy lifestyle from childhood itself is necessary. Implementation of
physical activities in schools and colleges will allow people to engage in more of
physical activity. Awareness about a healthy diet is necessary with schools and colleges
providing healthy lunch to the students and thus making it their habit. It is necessary to
educate them about healthy living as it will reflect in their old age and then they will be
more content. Changes in the early stages of life itself will allow people to improve their
health and wellbeing and concentrate on their goals and living efficiently in their old age
and enjoying life (Sawyer et al, 2012).
WHO has developed a policy framework in 2002 that focuses on active ageing by
reducing chronic disease, disabilities, and premature mortality and reducing risk factors
to communicable diseases and helps to protect the health and improve health and
wellbeing of a person? It allows care for aged individuals by improving care and also the
lifestyle of aged people and ensures safety and dignity and allows them to maintain and
play their part in economic development. There are various programs in England that
help in improving ageing like a 7-year program called new dynamics of ageing (2005-
2012) which focuses on improving quality of life of old people. Role of government in
improving the life of aged people is when they help people with low socioeconomic
status and when surrounding and neighbourhood are clean with broad or large spaces
allowing people to have a better quality of life. It is important for health agencies in
England to conduct awareness programs for healthier life allowing people to understand
the importance of health and leading better lives. Cessation of smoking, alcohol
consumption or substance use is necessary at adolescent itself which helps in
improving life later on. Health centres should focus on smoking cessation programs and
help chronic smokers to come out of this habit. They should also focus on educating
people on behaviour change programs that can help them attain a healthy life and thus
improve life at a later stage. Inequality can also be one major factor that can lead to

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stress and thereby multiple health issues, health centres should not be biased and
focus on providing equal health to people also government should focus on making
health centres accessible to people so that everyone can be healthy (House et al,
2013).
CONCLUSION
This assignment can be concluded by saying that health in old age is dependent on the
lifestyle at a younger age. It describes health and wellbeing in old age and provides an
understanding of how lifestyle at a young age can influence health and wellbeing at later
stages. Life course approach is described which allows understanding of the process of
ageing through different life stages to assess the factors that can cause chronic disease
or affect health at later stages. It describes how critical period and sensitive period are
present in a person's life where exposure can lead to damage to a person at later
stages. It describes various factors behavioural, environmental psychosocial and their
potential risks in the development of a disease or poor health. It suggests how changes
in lifestyle at adolescent will improve the life of a person in old age and also describes
interventions taken by the government to improve quality of life of aged people (Davis et
al, 2016).

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REFERENCES
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