Upcoming Webinars

Abstract A life-course approach to health encompasses strategies across individuals’ lives that optimize their functional ability (taking into account the interdependence of individual, social, environmental, temporal and intergenerational factors), thereby enabling well-being and the realization of rights. The approach is a perfect fit with efforts to achieve universal health coverage and meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Properly applied, a life-course approach can increase the effectiveness of the former and help realize the vision of the latter, especially in ensuring health and well-being for all at all ages. Its implementation requires a shared understanding by individuals and societies of how health is shaped by multiple factors throughout life and across …

Through this webinar, the Build Healthy Places Network will provide an overview of the community development sector, a multi-billion-dollar sector that serves as an action arm for addressing social determinants of health through the development and financing of affordable housing, grocery stores, community centers, health clinics, and services in low- and moderate-income communities. The overview will focus on the sector’s alignment with the health equity goals of public health, shared measurement strategies, and emerging opportunities for cross-sector collaboration.   Douglas Jutte, Executive Director, Build Healthy Places Network   Daniel Lau, Manager of Strategic Engagement, Build Healthy Places Network   Webinar recording available here

This is one of 26 chapters published in the Handbook of Life Course Health Development.   Abstract: Life course health science research is “connecting the dots” between child health development, adult patterns of premature morbidity and mortality, and more integrated notions of healthy aging. However, there are still many outstanding questions about the relationship between early experiences and lifelong health and well-being, as well as a growing need to understand how emerging knowledge can be applied to the development of evidence-based practice and policy that can reduce risks, minimize exposures, and optimize lifelong health. In 2010, the Maternal and Child Health Life Course Research Network (LCRN) initiated an inclusive research agenda-setting …

This is one of 26 chapters published in the Handbook of Life Course Health Development.   Abstract: Long-term survival for infants born extremely prematurely (<28 weeks of gestation) and extremely low birth weight (<1000 g) has increased dramatically due to obstetrical and neonatal advances. However, poverty, inequality, and resulting health disparities are significant contributors to women who give birth to preterm infants and also impact their children’s healthy development and education. While the vast majority of survivors of extreme prematurity do not have the most severe forms of neurodevelopmental disability (i.e., cerebral palsy, blindness, sensorineural hearing loss >55 dB, and intellectual disability), half of survivors can be expected to require special education services at …

ONLINE VERSION OUT NOW! This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint. In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research …

Health is a component of and a key resource for human development. It results from a cumulative process of continuous interaction between exposures and experiences, which have an impact at both the individual and population levels, not only episodically but over time, and with trans-generational effects. The increase in human life expectancy by approximately 30 years over the last century provides a compelling reason to expand health-related goals beyond simple survival. In the Region of the Americas, the effort to increase life expectancy has been successful; however, the increase in healthy life expectancy has not kept pace. On average, 8 of every 10 people who are born in the Region …

Growing evidence indicates that no single factor—but a system of intertwined causes—explains why America’s health is poorer than the health of other wealthy countries and why health inequities persist despite our efforts. Teasing apart the relationships between these many causes to find solutions has proven extraordinarily difficult. But now researchers are uncovering groundbreaking insights using computer-based systems science tools to simulate how these determinants come together to produce levels of population health and disparities and test new solutions. The culmination of over five years of work by experts from a more than a dozen disciplines, this book represents a bold step forward in identifying why some populations are healthy and …

The 2016 Lancet Early Childhood Development Series highlights early childhood development at a time when it has been universally endorsed in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This Series considers new scientific evidence for interventions, building on the findings and recommendations of previous Lancet Series on child development (2007, 2011), and proposes pathways for implementation of early childhood development at scale. The Series emphasises ‘nurturing care’, especially of children below three years of age, and multi-sectoral interventions starting with health, which can have wide reach to families and young children through health and nutrition.   Read full article  

This webinar – the sixth in the LCRN’s series on Occupational Therapy and MCH: An Emerging Partnership to Improve Early Family Experiences and Life Course Health Development – features Jyothi Gupta, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA.   Dr. Gupta is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Professor of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at St. Catherine University. Her research interests are identifying contextual barriers to full participation of marginalized groups and identifying strategies to maximize participation. The common themes in Dr. Gupta’s research are the influence of participation on health and well being of diverse groups, and issues of social injustice that impact participation. She has engaged in community-based participatory research with refugees and immigrants, and …

Infant mortality reduction in the U.S. has been addressed predominantly through clinical approaches. While these efforts have reduced the infant mortality rate overall, they have not reduced disparities between different racial/socioeconomic groups. To address the interrelated social, economic and environmental factors contributing to infant mortality, a place-based approach is needed to complement existing initiatives and clinical practices. Description Best Babies Zone (BBZ) is an early attempt to put life course theory into practice, taking a place-based approach to reducing infant mortality by aligning resources, building community leadership, and transforming educational opportunities, economic development, and community systems in concentrated neighborhoods. BBZ is currently in three neighborhoods: Price Hill (Cincinnati,OH), Hollygrove (New Orleans, LA), and Castlemont (Oakland, CA). In its first 4 years, each BBZ crafted resident-driven strategies …