Life Course Approach on Health Disparities in Older Adults

ABSTRACT

When taking into account for social, economic, health disparities over the life courses among older adults, we should observe how such disparities arise and how they are maintained over the generations. The first part of this paper addressed the framework and approaches for understanding lifetime influences on late life disadvantages of health. The second part presented specific examples of late life disparities and their potential sources including chronic diseases, cognitive functions and disabilities. Context was considered to be broad and included early life experiences, descendants of generations and family influences. The third part addressed the roles of specific contextual influences. The final section of this review summarized the limitation of life course approaches and implementations for intervention. For geriatric medicine, it should be expanded into the focus of medical interventions and research of earlier age, with a wider range from individual to community and society, together with various other factors.