基本説明
Provides a comprehensive 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.
Full Description
How far is the health of middle aged and older women shaped by biological, social, and psychological processes that begin in pre-natal development, childhood, adolescence, or early adult life? Do health risks gradually accumulate over the life course or do experiences 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 weight 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 personal interest in understanding the origins of women's health.
Contents
PART I: INTRODUCTION ; 1.1 A life course approach to women's health: does the past predict the present? ; PART II: HEALTH, AGEING AND DISEASE ; 2.1 A life course approach to women's reproductive health ; 2.2 Commentary ; 3.1 Breast cancer aetiology: where do we go from here? ; 3.2 Commentary ; 4.1 Menopause and gynaecological disorders: a life course perspective ; 4.2 Commentary ; 5.1 A life course approach to coronary heart disease and stroke ; 5.2 Commentary ; 6.1 A life course approach to Diabetes ; 6.2 Commentary ; 7.1 A life course approach to musculoskeletal ageing: muscle strength, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis ; 7.2 Commentary ; 8.1 Depression and psychological distress: a life course perspective ; 8.2 Commentary ; 9.1 Body image: a life course perspective ; 9.2 Commentary ; PART III: BIOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL PATHWAYS ; 10.1 Endocrine pathways in differential and well-being across the life course ; 10.2 Commentary ; 11.1 Social and economic trajectories and women's health ; 11.2 Commentary ; 12.1 Life course influences on women's social relationships at midlife ; 12.2 Commentary ; 13.1 A life course perspective on women's health behaviours ; 13.2 Commentary ; 14.1 Overweight and obesity from a life course perspective ; 14.2 Commentary ; 15.1 Sexually transmitted infections and health through the life course ; 15.2 Commentary ; PART IV: EXPLAINING HEALTH AND DISEASE PATTERNS ; 16.1 Disease trends in women living in established market economies: evidence of cohort effects during the epidemiological transition ; 16.2 Commentary ; 17.1 The life course of black women in South Africa in the 1990s: generation, age and period in the decade of HIV and political liberation ; 17.2 Commentary ; PART V: CONCLUSIONS ; 18.1 A life course approach to Women's health: linking the past, present and future
