Life‐course epidemiology: concepts and theoretical models and its relevance to chronic oral conditions
- 4 July 2007
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology
- Vol. 35 (4), 241-249
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0528.2007.00332.x
Abstract
Etiological models that predominantly emphasize current adult life styles, such as smoking, diet and lack of exercise have recently been seriously challenged by a growing body of evidence that disturbed early growth and development, childhood infection, poor nutrition, and social and psychosocial disadvantage across the life-course affect chronic disease risk, including chronic oral disease. This relatively new area of research is called life-course epidemiology. The life-course framework for investigating the aetiology and natural history of chronic disease proposes that advantages and disadvantages are accumulated throughout life generating differentials in health along the life-course, but most importantly later in life. Furthermore, its dynamic framework brings together the effects of intrinsic factors (individual resources) with extrinsic factors (environmental factors). The aim of this paper is to give an overview of this new epidemiological approach and to discuss how the life-course framework has been applied to chronic oral conditions.This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Statistical Issues in Life Course EpidemiologyAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 2005
- Social and biological early life influences on severity of dental caries in children aged 6 yearsCommunity Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 2005
- Socioeconomic inequalities in oral health in childhood and adulthood in a birth cohortCommunity Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 2004
- A life‐course approach to assess the relationship between social and psychological circumstances and gingival status in adolescentsJournal of Clinical Periodontology, 2003
- A Life Course Approach to Assessing Causes of Dental Caries Experience: The Relationship between Biological, Behavioural, Socio-Economic and Psychological Conditions and Caries in AdolescentsCaries Research, 2003
- Intergenerational continuity of child physical abuse: how good is the evidence?The Lancet, 2000
- Collecting retrospective data: Development of a reliable method and a pilot study of its useSocial Science & Medicine (1982), 1996
- Refining the Estimate of the Critical Period for Susceptibility to Enamel Fluorosis in Human Maxillary Central IncisorsJournal of Public Health Dentistry, 1995
- Prevalence and distribution of developmental enamel defects in primary dentition of Chinese children 3–5 years oldCommunity Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 1995
- INFANT MORTALITY, CHILDHOOD NUTRITION, AND ISCHAEMIC HEART DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALESThe Lancet, 1986