Life Course Approach: A Review

In recent years public health research has increasingly focused upon exploring the social determinants of health. Many health education interventions have been influenced by health behavior research based upon psychological theories and models. These theories focus at an individual level and seek to explore cognitive and affective processes determining behavior and lifestyle. Current psychological theories have only a limited value in the development of public health action on altering the underlying social determinants of health. New theoretical approaches have however, emerged which explore the relationship between the social environment and health. This paper aims to review and highlight the potential value to oral health promotion by public health theoretical approaches called Life Course Approach which analyses the complex ways in which biological risk interacts with economic, social and psychological factors in the development of chronic disease throughout the whole life course.