Here we present categories for organizing health information using the biopsychosocial and life course models. Unlike existing paradigms, like the biomedical model that organizes based on diseases/conditions, we developed one that is centered on helping the consumer contextualize their health and well-being even before any diseases/conditions, enabling the opportunity to prevent them.

We provide some examples for each of the eleven categories.

Cite

To cite this method of organizing health information, please use:

Rufrano, Michelle, and Jean-Ezra Yeung. “Digital pedagogy for the present: an artificial intelligence methodology for curriculum development.” (2023): https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd23.2023.16175.

Disasters

The Dutch famine is a great example that shows how early impacts can have long-lasting effects. We can also think about how the COVID-19 pandemic can have these effects. If we want to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to conceptualize using historical data what could be the impacts so that we can prevent health conditions in later life stages.

Exposome / Epigenetics

The age of the argument , “nature versus nurture”, is being redefined by exposome and epigenetic research. Epigenetic clocks can measure how social conditions become biologically embedded and show how much older or younger we are from our chronological age.

Adverse Experiences (early life adversities)

Adverse experiences in early life stages, such as during fetal, infant, childhood, and adolescence can have increased health risks over the life course, whether they are social conditions like immigration, or the physical environment like air pollution; other examples include poor nutrition, preterm births and unhealthy behavior.

Substance Abuse & Mental Health

Climate change can impact our mental health and substance abuse. ADHD can lead to major life problems; and research suggests suicide attempt versus death may be different outcomes; but dance can have positive impacts to our health and well-being.

Work / Labor

Mitigating later-life disability disparities requires consideration of the cumulative stress across the life course.

Lifestyle

The school-to-work transition is a critical period because of its long-lasting impact on the life course and adverse outcomes could accumulate over the life course. (Dis)Advantages can vary by class, gender and age for later adult work course.

Women / Maternal

There are pathways to childlessness that include the absence of marriage and childbearing, which move away from the standard life course model. The biomedical model conceptualization of gender and health may harm individuals in the healthcare system. Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy can impact infant temperament.

Discrimination & Inequity

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for American women but young women are not the primary target of prevention campaigns. Exposure to unfavorable social circumstances makes people vulnerable to poor mental health over the life course. It is important to identify disability risks and the burden on intersectional identities over the life course, as transgender adults may have higher rates than cisgender adults. Women can experience more fragmented and fewer years of paid work across the life course.

Life Expectancy / Lifespan

People on average are living healthier and longer lives, reshaping the economy. There is a lack of research examining the relationship between early life upward mobility and later-life mortality across counties. Studies have not previously identified sensitive periods where risk and protective factors may be predictive of psychological outcomes, like depressive symptoms, which can manifest in other periods of life: shift-and-persist is a coping strategy that may protect against discrimination’s negative impact.

Linked Lives / Intergenerational / Multigenerational

Black women are disproportionately impacted by HIV, and supportive relationships have been shown to help deal with challenges and improve their health. Heterogeneous relationship network structures may be one mechanism that shapes mental health trajectories in later-life.

Old age / Elderly

Frailty is a risk to older people and is increasing in prevalence due to aging trends.

Citations

Disasters

Tessa Roseboom et al., “The Dutch famine and its long-term consequences for adult health.,” Early human development 8, no. 82 (2006): .

Amara Finch and Anna Grace. Tribble, “The path ahead: From global pandemic to health promotion.,” Preventive medicine reports , no. 21 (2021):https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101271.

Exposome / Epigenetics

Miller, Gary W. and Dean P. Jones. “The nature of nurture: refining the definition of the exposome.” Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology 1, no. 137 (2014): 1-2.https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kft251.

Simons, Ronald L., Man-Kit Lei, Eric Klopach, Mark Berg, Yue Zhang, Steven S R Beach. “Re(Setting) Epigenetic Clocks: An Important Avenue Whereby Social Conditions Become Biologically Embedded across the Life Course.” Journal of health and social behavior 3, no. 62 (2021): 436-453.https://doi.org/10.1177/00221465211009309.

Adverse Experiences (early life adversities)

Grest, Carolina Villamil., Megan Finno-Velasquez, Julie A. Cederbaum, Jennifer B. Unger. “Adverse Childhood Experiences Among 3 Generations of Latinx Youth.” American journal of preventive medicine 1, no. 60 (2021): 20-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.07.007.

Pun, Vivian C., Russell Dowling, Sumi Mehta. “Ambient and household air pollution on early-life determinants of stunting-a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Environmental science and pollution research international 21, no. 28 (2021): 26404-26412.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13719-7.

Shinde, Sachin, Isabel Madzorera, Wafaie W. Fawzi. “Association of iron supplementation and dietary diversity with nutritional status and learning outcomes among adolescents: Results from a longitudinal study in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India.” Journal of global health , no. 11 (2021): 04037. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.04037.

Gonen, Elif, E Sabrina. Twilhaar, Nicole Baumann, Barbara Busch, Peter Bartmann, Dieter Wolke. “Changes in social relationships from 26 to 34 years of age in adults born very preterm.” Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology 1, no. 39 (2025): 15-26.https://doi.org/10.1111/ppe.13133.

Goss, Hannah R., McDermott, Clare, Hickey, Laura et al.. “Understanding disadvantaged adolescents’ perception of health literacy through a systematic development of peer vignettes.” BMC public health 1, no. 21 (2021): 593.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10634-x.

Substance Abuse & Mental Health

Vergunst, Francis and Helen L. Berry. “Climate Change and Children’s Mental Health: A Developmental Perspective.” Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science 4, no. 10 (2022): 767-785. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026211040787.

Vergunst, Francis, Helen L. Berry, Kelton Minor, Nicholas Chadi. “Climate Change and Substance-Use Behaviors: A Risk-Pathways Framework.” Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science 4, no. 18 (2023): 936-954. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221132739.

Nigg, Joel T., Margaret H. Sibley, Anita Thapar, Sarah L. Karalunas. “Development of ADHD: Etiology, Heterogeneity, and Early Life Course.” Annual review of developmental psychology 1, no. 2 (2020): 559-583.https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-060320-093413.

Kerry Chappell et al., “The aesthetic, artistic and creative contributions of dance for health and wellbeing across the lifecourse: a systematic review.,” International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being 1, no. 16 (2021):https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2021.1950891.

Work / Labor

Sauerteig-Rolston, Madison R. and Kenneth F. Ferraro. “Disparities in Stress Exposure and Later-Life Disability.” Innovation in aging 5, no. 8 (2024): igae039. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igae039.

Lifestyle

Dietrich, Hans, Alexander Patzina, Jenny Chesters, Volker Reissner. “School-to-work transition and subjective well-being in Australia.” The British journal of sociology 1, no. 73 (2022): 78-111.https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12895.

Moen, Phyllis, Sarah M. Flood, Janet Wang. “The Uneven Later Work Course: Intersectional Gender, Age, Race, and Class Disparities.” The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences 1, no. 77 (2022): 170-180.https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab039.

Women / Maternal

Yanwen Wang et al., “Diverse pathways to permanent childlessness in Singapore: A latent class analysis.,” Advances in life course research , no. 61 (2024): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2024.100628.

K C Barry Councilor and Ann E. Fink, “Gendered bodies: A graphic medicine commentary.,” Social science & medicine (1982) Suppl 1, no. 351 (2024):https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116436.

Marius Lahti-Pulkkinen et al., “Maternal psychological distress and temperament traits in children from infancy to late childhood.,” JCPP advances 3, no. 4 (2024):https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12242.

Discrimination & Inequity

Liu, Jingyi, Sierra Patterson, Shivani Goel, Courtney A. Brown, Sarah D De Ferranti, Holly C. Gooding. “Helping young women go red: Harnessing the power of personal and digital information to prevent heart disease.” Patient education and counseling 10, no. 104 (2021): 2571-2576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.03.008.

Kirkbride, James B., Anglin, Deidre M., Colman, Ian et al.. “The social determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence, prevention and recommendations.” World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) 1, no. 23 (2024): 58-90. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21160.

Smith-Johnson, Madeline. “Transgender Adults Have Higher Rates Of Disability Than Their Cisgender Counterparts.” Health affairs (Project Hope) 10, no. 41 (2022): 1470-1476.https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00500.

Heikkila, Katriina, Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz, Kristina Alexanderson, Marianna Virtanen. “Work Participation among Women and Men in Sweden: A Register Study of 8.5 Million Individuals.” International journal of environmental research and public health 9, no. 18 (2021): 10.3390/ijerph18094642.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094642.

Life Expectancy / Lifespan

Scott, Andrew J.. “The longevity economy.” The lancet. Healthy longevity 12, no. 2 (2021): e828-e835. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00250-6.

Zang, Emma and Nathan Kim. “Intergenerational upward mobility and racial differences in mortality among young adults: Evidence from county-level analyses.” Health & place , no. 70 (2021): 102628. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102628.

N Keita. Christophe and Gabriela L. Stein, “Shift-&-Persist and discrimination predicting depression across the life course: An accelerated longitudinal design using MIDUSI-III.,” Development and psychopathology 4, no. 34 (2022): https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421000146.

Linked Lives / Intergenerational / Multigenerational

Moore, Elizabeth D., Courtney Caiola, Michael Cary, Janice Humphreys. “A Qualitative Study of the Social Relationship Experiences Across the Life Course Among Black/African American Women Aging With HIV in the South.” The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care : JANAC 2, no. 35 (2024): 122-134.https://doi.org/10.1097/JNC.0000000000000450.

Qu, Tianyao. “A bridge too far? Social network structure as a determinant of depression in later life.” Social science & medicine (1982) , no. 345 (2024): 116684.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116684.

Old Age / Elderly

Dlima, Schenelle Dayna., Alex Hall, Abodunrin Quadri. Aminu, Asangaedem Akpan, Chris Todd, Emma R L C Vardy. “Frailty: a global health challenge in need of local action.” BMJ global health 8, no. 9 (2024): 10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015173. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015173.